What is the Director’s Choice This Year?

The Mix

Often mixed reps will pair premieres with familiar ballets to make sure audiences see at least something they like if the new works aren’t a hit. But all three Director’s Choice pieces are new to PNB. For this mixed rep program, the mix contains two world premieres and one local premiere. I think two of the choreographers are new to PNB as well. There is one female choreographer and two of the choreographers are men.  

The Trees The Trees

I don’t think we’ve ever seen Robyn Mineko Williams’ work at PNB before, but she got her start at Hubbard Street Dance. That name that seems to be associated in some way with many of my favorite ballets, so I have high hopes for this “dance collage” of vignettes built on poems from the book The Trees The Trees by Heather Christle. Sorry, Seattle Public Library doesn’t have it. Poems about trees are good.

The music for this world premiere ballet will itself be a world premiere, commissioned for this dance. The composer is Kyle Vegter, who is listed online as a sound designer as well as a composer, so it’s possible we won’t be hearing a classical music. Based on the program credits, it looks like the Christle’s poems will be performed over top of the score.

New Neenan

That’s not actually the name of the ballet. The choreographer is Matthew Neenan, who is, I think, new to PNB, and the piece is so new that it doesn’t have a name yet. Hopefully Neenan is one of those creators who picks the name last and the dance itself is already finished. I don’t have any particular frame of reference for this piece. I don’t know anything more about Neenan than the press release and although Oliver Davis is a fairly young, contemporary classical composer, I’m not familiar with his work. This will, for me at least, be a completely new experience on all fronts.

In the Countenance of Kings

This is as close to “familiar” as this program gets. It has been performed elsewhere (San Francisco 2016) before. We’ve seen Justin Peck twice before – with Year of the Rabbit and Debonair – and he’s tied to New York City Ballet, from which PNB evolved. Like Year of the Rabbit, this new piece uses music by Sufjan Stevens.

In this case, the music is The BQE, which Stevens describes as “a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Hula-Hoop.” If that doesn’t pique your curiosity, then there’s no hope for you.

Details

Performances: March 15 and 16 at 7:30 pm; March 16 at 2:00 pm; March 21 – 23 at 7:30 pm; and March 24 at 1:00 pm.

Tickets start at $30.

Running Time: 2 hours 11 minutes including two 20 minute intermissions.