Pacific Northwest Ballet Announces 2021-2022 Season of Live Performances

Pacific Northwest Ballet Announces 2021-2022 Season of Live Performances

by | Jun 15, 2021 | General, News, The Arts

Seattle, WA. The Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) is planning to have live onstage performances starting in September. The company is currently wrapping up a first-ever digital season. Elle Macy and Dylan Wald, (seen above) were featured in PNB’s digital offerings this season.

Artistic Director Peter Boal is announcing the line-up for 2021-2022 which includes the works of Alejandro Cerrudo and Twyla Tharp, PNB premieres by Alonzo King and  Justin Peck and a world premiere by Robyn Mineko Williams. Other highlights will be the return of classic story ballets Swan Lake and Roméo et Juliette, as well as works by Ulysses Dove, Jessica Lang, and Crystal Pite. (And George  Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®.)

PNB will continue to offer its digital subscription as well. During the past pandemic year the company’s offerings, like Curious Kingdom, seen above, were viewed by ballet fans in every state and 34 countries.

Full-season subscribers will have access to the digital season as part of their subscription.

PNB Box Office is now taking orders for subscription renewals and digital-season subscriptions. Click here for info. (New subscriptions, Nutcracker and season single tickets to go on sale later this summer.) 

Full-season subscriptions start at $190. 

Four-show partial-season subscriptions (February – June performances) start at $130. 

Digital season subscriptions available for $249. 

(Free with full-season season subscriptions; $150 with partial-season seated subscriptions.) September 2021 – June 2022,  Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer Street at Seattle Center, Seattle, Washington

Below is a list of the 2021-22 offerings From PNB:

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET’S 2021-22 SEASON LINE-UP (Programming and schedule subject to change.) 

Rep 1 – SINGULARLY CERRUDO 

September 24 – 26, 2021 

The creative power of PNB’s Resident Choreographer Alejandro Cerrudo is on full display in this triple bill. Breathe in  the moving tranquility of Silent Ghost, take a tantalizing look at spectacular teamwork in an excerpt from One  Thousand Pieces, and journey through the unexpected twists and turns of Little mortal jump.

Silent Ghost 

Music: Dustin Hamman, King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, Ólafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm 

Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo 

One Thousand Pieces (Excerpt) 

Music: Philip Glass 

Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo 

Little mortal jump 

Music: Beirut, Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, Alexandre Desplat, Philip Glass, Hans Otte, Max Richter, Tom  Waits and Kathleen Brennan 

Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo 

Rep 2 – BEYOND BALLET 

November 5 – 7, 2021 

Three unique voices of three internationally-acclaimed choreographers: the combination of Ulysses Dove’s mournful  Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven, Jessica Lang’s haunting Ghost Variations, and the PNB premiere of Alonzo  King’s The Personal Element promises unmatched emotion, expression, and musicality. 

Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven 

Music: Arvo Pärt 

Choreography: Ulysses Dove 

Ghost Variations 

Music: Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann 

Choreography: Jessica Lang 

The Personal Element (PNB Premiere) 

Music: Jason Moran 

Choreography: Alonzo King 

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker® 

November 20 – December 28, 2021 (NOTE: Not part of the 2021-22 Subscription season.) 

Celebrate the holidays with renewed gusto! With its classic score, thrilling dancing, resplendent costumes, and  magical scenery, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®is the perfect centerpiece for any holiday celebration.  Cheers! 

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky 

Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust 

Costume & Scenic Design: Ian Falconer 

Roméo et Juliette 

February 4 – 13, 2022 

Presented during PNB’s 2020-21 digital season, but nothing compares to the in-person experience: Jean-Christophe  Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette will sweep audiences to Verona through powerful choreography, Prokofiev’s rich score,  the flush of first love, and the drama of Shakespeare’s classic story. 

Music: Sergei Prokofiev 

Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot

Rep 4 – PLOT POINTS 

March 18 – 27, 2022 

Bold experimentation is the theme for this set of trailblazing pieces. PNB audiences will remember the power of  Crystal Pite’s Plot Point; the arresting complexity of Justin Peck’s The Times Are Racing and a world premiere by  Robin Mineko Williams (The Trees The Trees) are sure to make a similar impression. 

The Times Are Racing (PNB Premiere) 

Music: Dan Deacon 

Choreography: Justin Peck 

World Premiere 

Choreography: Robin Mineko Williams 

Plot Point 

Music: Bernard Herrmann 

Choreography: Crystal Pite 

Beauty and the Beast 

March 20 – 27, 2022 (NOTE: Not part of the 2021-22 Subscription season.) 

Featuring students of Pacific Northwest Ballet School. 

Based on the beloved fairy tale, this narrated, one-hour performance is the perfect introduction to ballet for young  theatre-goers. Performed by the accomplished students of PNB School, Bruce Wells’ Beauty and the Beast will take  the audience on a journey to a magical world of adventure, unlikely friendships, and true love. 

Music: Léo Delibes 

Concept and Choreography: Bruce Wells 

Swan Lake 

April 15 – 24, 2022 

PNB’s return to the stage wouldn’t be complete without Swan Lake. Every element of this production is carefully  crafted to keep the audience on the edge of their seat, from the masterful choreography, to the stunning sets and  costumes, to the undeniably iconic score. And most captivating of all: the story at the ballet’s heart – a classic tale of  good versus evil, temptation, tragedy, and love of the highest order. 

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky 

Choreography: Kent Stowell 

Staging: Francia Russell (after Petipa and Ivanov) 

REP 6 – ALL THARP 

June 3 – 12, 2022 

PNB’s final rep of the season is all about the legendary dancer, director, and choreographer Twyla Tharp. From the  echo of her own Quaker roots in Sweet Fields, to the haunting Scottish clan in Brief Fling, to the all-out joy of New  Orleans that runs through Waiting at the Station, Tharp draws inspiration from around the globe and yet her style  remains quintessentially her own. 

Brief Fling 

Music: Michel Colombier and Percy Grainger 

Choreography: Twyla Tharp 

Sweet Fields (PNB Premiere) 

Music: 18th- and 19th-century American hymns and Shaker songs 

Choreography: Twyla Tharp 

Waiting at the Station 

Music: Allen Toussaint 

Choreography: Twyla Tharp

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 

The Pacific Northwest Ballet Box Office is now taking orders for subscription renewals and digital-season subscriptions to PNB’s 2021-22 season. Full-season [seated] subscriptions start at $190 for seats to all six programs. Four-show partial-season subscriptions, with seats to the February – June performances, start at $130. 

Full-season subscriptions include access to six digital performances as well. Partial-season subscribers may purchase digital access for $150. A digital-only subscription is available for $249. 

Subscribers should be receiving detailed renewal information via email, and may contact the PNB Box Office by calling 206.441.2424 or online at PNB.org. 

New subscriptions and single tickets to season performances as well as tickets to George Balanchine’s The  Nutcracker will be available for purchase from the PNB Box Office beginning later this summer, date TBA. 

  1. A. Q.s

What safety protocols will be in place at McCaw Hall? 

The 2021/22 season will be our first in-person season since the COVID pandemic began. The safety of our artists,  audiences, and staff is our first priority. This far in advance, it is difficult to predict exactly what safety procedures may look like over the course of the next year. Masks will be required for attending Pacific Northwest Ballet performances, and we will follow public health and safety mandates. Up-to-date safety procedures will be sent regularly via email and available at any time on PNB.org. By purchasing an in-person ticket or subscription to our  2021/22 Season patrons agree to abide by all safety requirements at McCaw Hall. 

Can subscribers sit in their same seats this season? 

We hope to return subscribers to their seats by February 2022. Because Reps 1 and 2 are the first performances  back in McCaw Hall and have shorter performance runs, seating will be socially distanced and the best available in  subscribers’ seating section (or a comparable section). Seating will follow public health and safety mandates and be  at the discretion of the Box Office. 

How will capacity requirements at McCaw Hall affect the ability to attend a performance? McCaw Hall capacity will follow public health and safety mandates and may affect where patrons sit or the day they attend. Subscribers have priority access to available seating. Single tickets (non-subscription ticket purchases) will be  based on availability, and will go on sale at a later date. 

What will food and beverage service look like? 

Prelude, McCaw Hall’s full service restaurant, will not be open in the fall. Spectra, McCaw Hall’s concessionaire, is  planning for grab-and-go pre-packaged food and beverage options. 

Will vaccinations against COVID-19 be mandatory to attend? 

PNB encourages all audience members to be vaccinated. We will be following public health and safety mandates  regarding mandatory vaccine and/or rapid testing to attend performances at McCaw Hall. 

Will the Digital Season match the content seen by those attending in-person performances at McCaw Hall? We are working closely with our partners with the goal of translating as much of the in-person performance  experience to the digital version as possible. 

How long will digital ticketholders have access to the performance? 

Subscribers will have access to their digital content for five days after the link is made available. The content will  come offline at midnight on the fifth day after it is released. For example, a performance released on a Thursday will  be available until midnight on the evening of the following Monday. 

Why are digital performances limited in time? 

Generally speaking, PNB does not own the creative rights to the content we perform. This applies to both  choreography as well as music performed by the PNB Orchestra. Our digital release windows are arranged with the  permission of the owners of this content, and PNB is committed to honor these terms. 

Will subscribers get their same seat(s) for Reps 1 and 2? 

Reps 1 and 2 will be one-week runs with only four performances each. The PNB Box Office will assign subscribers the best seats available in their section or a comparable section, following all public health and safety mandates. 

Seating will happen at a later date closer to the performance when we know more about crowd size requirements. (We hope to return subscribers to their usual seats by February 2022.) 

Will subscribers have access to a digital viewing if they can’t use their in-person ticket? Full-Season subscribers will automatically receive access to the Digital Season. Mini-season subscribers and single  ticket holders may exchange their performance ticket into digital if they wish. 

# # # 

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 2021-2022 season is proudly sponsored by ArtsFund and Microsoft. Special thanks also to  4Culture, National Endowment for the Arts, The Shubert Foundation, City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, and The  Wallace Foundation. 

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Second Stage Program Supports Dancers

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Second Stage Program Supports Dancers

by | Feb 9, 2021 | General, Lifestyle, News, The Arts

Seattle, WA. In celebration of World Tutu Day and #TutuTuesday, Pacific Northwest Ballet launched a new fundraising effort for its Second Stage Program. The program supports PNB dancers looking to advance to the next stage of their lives. It’s multi-faceted and provides scholarships, mentorship programs, and support for a career transition. Providing financial support to dancers allows them to take college courses, access counseling, and career services, and receive grants for education and start-up expenses. 

The lack of performance opportunities because of the COVID-19 pandemic has created an increased need to help bridge economic gaps and support dancer’s post-dance careers. This year World Tutu Day fell on Tuesday, February 2nd, so it was a great opportunity to launch an effort supporting young dancers, gearing up to advance their education and career opportunities.

Leta Biasucci is just one of many dancers who have benefited from this program. She articulates how much it has impacted her life: “While the notion is changing, there are often too many barriers of entry for a dancer to pursue higher education and explore other passions. Time, accessibility, and of course, expense are all hurdles. Dancers are exceptional in reaching personal goals through cultivated grit, dedication, and determination; but before anyone can aim for a goal, one must feel like that goal is attainable. That is why there is a real need for programs like Second Stage.”

Leta Biasucci in The Sleeping Beauty. Photo courtesy of PNB and Angela Sterling.

Funds from benefactors make it possible for PNB dancers to become college graduates, lawyers, small business owners, therapists, and more. Donate here.

From the Pacific Northwest Ballet:

Second Stage is a multi-faceted career transition program for PNB dancers to achieve their post-Company goals. Since 1999, Second Stage has provided more than $750,000 in grants to dozens of dancers. Our former colleagues are now working in law, medicine, dance education, culinary arts, dancewear design and manufacturing, aesthetics, and photography—as well as creating and managing companies world-wide. The program offers scholarships, mentorships, support for research, and a unique partnership with Seattle University. You may donate at this link: Second Stage Program.

Friday Foundation Donates $9 Million to Keep the Arts Alive in Seattle

Friday Foundation Donates $9 Million to Keep the Arts Alive in Seattle

by | Oct 30, 2020 | General, News, The Arts

Seattle, WA. Nine leading Seattle arts organizations have received welcome news at a critical time. On October 20th, 2020 the Friday Foundation announced philanthropic gifts totaling more than $9 million to honor the lives and legacies of late art enthusiasts Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang (pictured above).

“These gifts are a shining example of what community support for art and art institutions looks like, and it reflects and furthers the incredible legacy of the Langs,” said Amada Cruz, director and CEO of the Seattle Art Museum. “The gift to our Closure Relief Fund was the single largest gift to that fund, and it arrived at a crucial moment in April as we faced the crisis directly, enabling us to support all museum operations.”

Aaron Fowler’s “Into Existence” exhibit, Seattle Art Museum.

The Langs believed in the power of the arts to embrace new ideas, foster quiet reflection, and promote community. The gifts are intended to inspire others to discover and engage with Seattle’s many cultural communities and opportunities in the visual and performing arts and find lifelong engagements as the Langs did themselves. Whether it is attending a concert or performance, volunteering with an organization, or discovering art, the hope is to remind the Seattle community that there are so many places and organizations for people of all ages to find inspiration. 

With lights dimmed in most theaters and museums this year due to COVID-19, these gifts enable five major Seattle arts organizations – Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Opera, and the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington – to acquire or present new works for audiences to enjoy from home or in person when it is safe to do so. 

“My mother and stepfather were dedicated to the arts, to Seattle, to the stability of these critical civic gems, and to the inherent promotion of human connection,” said Lyn Grinstein, daughter of Jane Lang Davis and president of the Friday Foundation. “Through the Friday Foundation, these gifts will help fulfill these wishes, by funding new activities and initiatives, as well as provide stability through financial assistance to operations hard hit by the pandemic shutdown.”

The Langs, who lived in Medina, are best known for their internationally recognized art collection with a focus on Abstract Expressionism. Richard joined the Seattle Art Museum board in 1972 and served until his death in 1982. Jane, who died in 2017, joined the SAM board in 1985 and in 2000 became a lifetime trustee, and served for a time as the chair of the Honorary Trustees. Always true to her devotion to abstraction, emerging artists, and the newest work, Jane was an early and active member of the Contemporary Art Council (CAC), advocating for and supporting Seattle Art Museum’s early initiatives in its contemporary collections and exhibitions. She served on CAC and all its subsequent forms for four decades and was an active participant in all major fundraising campaigns. 

To continue the Lang’s legacy, the Friday Foundation is funding The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Acquisition Fund for Global Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum with a $2 million gift. Amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Friday Foundation also gifted the Seattle Art Museum an additional $2 million in emergency funds to help offset economic losses when the museum closed to visitors in March. Amanda Cruz, SAM’s director and CEO stated that “This endowment will help shape the future of SAM’s collection, as we continue our focus on emerging artists from all over the world. We are extremely grateful for the generosity of the Friday Foundation.”

The Seattle Opera

Christina Scheppelmann, general director of the Seattle Opera, said, “This extraordinary gift from the Friday Foundation allows us to create the Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab, which cultivates the next generation of storytellers in opera. This new multi-year initiative will contribute to the operatic repertoire at large — and bring new stories to our community — by supporting the talents of a diverse group of composers and librettists (ages 18-30). Opera needs new and varied perspectives to thrive into the future—and to complement great works of the past. The impacts of this gift will reverberate in Washington State, and far beyond. We are humbled by this investment in the future of opera.”

“The Langs transformed the arts landscape throughout our region with their stewardship, advocacy, and extraordinary support,” said Sylvia Wolf, John S. Behnke Director of the Henry Art Gallery. “With these gifts, their impact will live on, in perpetuity. The Henry has a long tradition of inviting artists to consider the museum as a laboratory for new ideas. This extraordinary gift will allow us to expand this practice and to deepen our service to artists, audiences, and the field at large. It will also connect our UW community and students of all ages with living artists and their creative processes. We are deeply grateful to the Friday Foundation for establishing the Henry’s first endowed fund specifically geared towards supporting newly commissioned work.”

In addition to the $2 million SAM acquisition fund, the new endowments include $1.5 million to support the development of the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Living Music Program at the Seattle Symphony, $1 million for the creation of the Jane Lang Davis New Works Fund at Pacific Northwest Ballet, $1 million to support the launch of the Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab at the Seattle Opera, and $1 million to support the creation of the Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis New Works Fund at the Henry Art Gallery.

The Seattle Symphony

“The Seattle Symphony is honored to receive this grant from the Friday Foundation recognizing the legacy of Richard and Jane,” said Seattle Symphony president and CEO Krishna Thiagarajan. “The Symphony is known for its imaginative programming, from our [untitled] series to our just-launched The Essential Series. The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Living Music Program allows us to expand this transformative work by creating a pathway for sustained success within our bold programming choices, while also giving us the possibility of re-envisioning the concert experience for audiences within and beyond Benaroya Hall.”

Peter Boal, artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet, said, “Through the gift of the Friday Foundation, Jane and Richard Lang’s legacy continues by helping the creation of new choreography. Because of this generosity, Pacific Northwest Ballet will be able to fund an original new work every season. When I choose the commission every season, I will recall Jane’s willingness to embrace risk and innovation in order to bring inspired art and dance into our lives.”

In addition to the new works, other Friday Foundation gifts announced today include $270,000 to ArtsFund’s COVID-19 Arts Emergency Relief Fund, and $100,000 each to ACT – A Contemporary Theatre, Seattle Rep, and the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

“The Langs understood the transformational power of the arts – a power we need today more than ever,” said Michael Greer, president and CEO of ArtsFund. “Their vision and legacy, honored by these gifts from the Friday Foundation, will have an immediate impact on arts and culture in our region and will resonate for years to come. These gifts serve as a significant reminder of the impact of philanthropy, and how we can and must all work together to secure the future of cultural organizations that help our community thrive. These generous gifts are inspiring and set a profound example for us all.”

Pablo Schugurensky, adviser to the Friday Foundation, said, “As well as sustaining and strengthening these nine institutions, we hope these gifts spur others to join the arts community, inspired by the examples of Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang and their deep commitment to the arts and their love for Seattle. Whether it is creating art, enjoying a performance, attending exhibitions, or supporting artists and art organizations in their city, we all have an important role to play.”  This gift honoring the Langs’ legacy is the first of several. Additional announcements will be made in 2021.

 

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