Silent Ghost

All Premiere, the second program of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 2018-2019 season, is an annual tradition. Together with Director’s Choice, you can count on All Premiere to feature some of the most interesting and innovative dance in the ballet world. This year was as exceptional as always. I’ve already talked about A Dark and Lonely Space, which surprised me with its – literally – cosmic scope. The ballet I was most looking forward to was the middle piece of the program, Silent Ghost by Alejandro Cerrudo.

Anticipation

There were two reasons I was excited for Silent Ghost: the man and the music. This is the third ballet by Alejandro Cerrudo that PNB has acquired. I saw the first one, Memory Glow, at Director’s Choice in 2014. I don’t remember it very well now, but at the time it was a sort of balm at the end of a world-shaking rep. The second one, Little Mortal Jump, blew my mind both times I saw it – first at Director’s Choice in 2016 and again this last April when it was performed with Emergence.

I was already interested in Cerrudo’s choreography, but I was also excited about the music. Most of the time ballet uses music from the classical music canon. There are a few composers that I can count as “bands I like” but most classical music exists in the background for me. Cerrudo doesn’t use a lot of classical music. He pulls together disparate, modern recorded pieces that only go together when you hear it with the dance. This piece uses music from Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm who are both precious to me. I saw them both at Decibel festival a few years back.

The Music

For Silent Ghost, Cerrudo used five pieces of contemporary music. It started with Dustin Hamman’s “This is the place.” It’s spare distorted guitar and squalling vocals give way to “Salad’s Lament” which is also pretty minimal. But the guitar is cleaner and a little sparkly, there are no vocals and the tone is meditative – it reminded me a little of Marisa Anderson. The next piece, a collaboration between King Creosote and Jon Hopkins off the album Diamond Mine, changes gears a bit. It sounds like a field recording of a conversation you can’t quite make out, played over top of some very Ólafur Arnalds -like piano.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/44oH6bmSORyXqbo7Kp8etF

{Sorry, I don’t have spotify so I can’t embed, but PNB has provided the full playlist at this link.}

That gives way to actual Ólafur, off the album For Now I Am Winter. On the album, the title track includes vocals from Arnór Dan, but this recording was instrumental only. Without the aching vocals, the music felt more peaceful, even pensive. Finally, the piece ended with Nils Frahm’s “Familiar” off of Felt, which is my favorite of his albums.

The first three songs were not familiar to me, but now that I’ve heard them, you can expect to see them in a future “Music I Liked” post. Discovering new music is not usually part of my ballet experience, but I’m happy to add it to the list of things I love about ballet. But even more satisfying was hearing music that I already love accompanied by ballet.  I already have so much history with those songs. Getting to see them in a new context was like discovering a new side to an old friend.

Silent Ghost

Even though I don’t remember many specifics of Memory Glow, I feel like Silent Ghost has more in common with it than Little Mortal Jump. Both pieces had a soothing quality quite different from the humor of Little Mortal Jump. But all three feel like something profound just beyond your mental grasp. And Silent Ghost did feel very mental to me. Not in an academic sense, but in a meditative one. The dancers’ movements were like ocean waves or rain sliding down your window. Well, actually, they weren’t remotely that repetitive, but they provided a focus that allows the mind to still.

In his lecture, Audience Education Manager Doug Fullington said that he asked Cerrudo about the name “Silent Ghost.” Cerrudo said that it wasn’t literal in any way but was more like naming a child (something he has done himself recently). “Silent Ghost” was a name that sounded nice and felt right. That seems as true about the dance itself as the name.

Tickets

The remaining performances are:

November 8 – 10 at 7:30 pm

November 11 at 1:00 pm

Tickets may be purchased online. Subject to availability, tickets are also available 90 minutes prior to each performance at McCaw Hall – these “at the door” tickets are half-price for students and seniors; $5 for TeenTix members. If you are between ages 20-40, sign up for ThePointe to receive discounts.

About Silent Ghost

Music: Dustin Hamman, King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, Ólafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm
Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo
Staging: Pablo Piantino
Lighting Design: Michael Korsch
Costume Design: Branimira Ivanova
Duration: 20 minutes
Premiere: July 10, 2015, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet
Pacific Northwest Ballet Premiere: November 2, 2018
Cast I saw:
Noelani Pantastico*
Elizabeth Murphy*
Rachel Foster*
Leah Merchant*
Elle Macy*

Lucien Postlewaite*
Dylan Wald*
Steven Loch*
Ezra Thomson*
James Moore*

{I attended All Premiere courtesy of Pacific Northwest Ballet. Opinions, as always, are my own.}