The Pacific Northwest Ballet's 2014-2015 Season Includes JEWELS, DON QUIXOTE and More

Artistic Director Peter Boal has announced to subscribers the line-up for Pacific Northwest Ballet's 2014-2015 season. Highlights include a program devoted to the work of acclaimed choreographer William Forsythe; the return of popular works by George Balanchine, Alexei Ratmansky, David Dawson, and Nacho Duato; a world premiere by New York City Ballet's Justin Peck, a PNB premiere by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa; and a fond farewell to the Northwest's favorite holiday tradition, Kent Stowell and Maurice Sendak's Nutcracker. (PNB will unveil a new production of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker™ with sets and costumes by Ian Falconer in 2015.)

PNB is now accepting season subscription renewals and new subscription orders; New and renewing subscribers may also purchase tickets to the Stowell & Sendak Nutcracker, which goes on sale to the public on May 19. The Box Office opens for 2014-2015 season ticket sales on Monday, July 21. For further information, contact the PNB Box Office by phone at 206.441.2424, online at PNB.org, or in person at 301 Mercer Street. Discounted subscription rates are available for senior citizens and students with ID. All programming and dates are subject to change. For more information, visit PNB.org.

2014-2015 SEASON LINE-UP (programming subject to change):

First Look Gala

Friday, September 26, 2014

(Not part of PNB's subscription season. Call the PNB Box Office for details.)

Celebrate the opening of PNB's 42nd season with a glamorous cocktail party, an elegant backstage dinner, and a dance party onstage after the performance! Edward Villella is scheduled to be PNB's honored guest at our season kick-off gala. For information, visit PNB.org. (Performance tickets sold separately.)

Rep 1 - George Balanchine's JEWELS™

September 26 - October 5, 2014

Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust

Staging: Elyse Borne

Costume Design: Karinska

Lighting Design: Mark Stanley

Emeralds

Music: Gabriel Fauré

Rubies

Music: Igor Stravinsky

Diamonds

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Costumed in emerald green, ruby red, and luminous white, the trio of gems in George Balanchine's Jewels pay tribute to golden ages of music and dance. Evoking the birthplace of Romantic ballet, Emeralds' graceful clouds of tulle whisper French courtesy, fashion, and fragrance. Rubies mirrors the carefree spontaneity of America, Balanchine's beloved adopted country: a sassy, jazzy collaboration with Stravinsky. The splendor of Diamonds recalls the great choreographer's heritage, so that "if the entire Imperial Russian inheritance of ballet were lost, Diamonds would still tell us of its essence" (Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp).

Rep 2 - DIRECTOR'S CHOICE

November 7 - 16, 2014

A Million Kisses to My Skin

Music: Johann Sebastian Bach

Choreography: David Dawson

Scenic Design: David Dawson

Costume Design: Yumiko Takeshima

Lighting Design: Bert Dalhuysen

Rassemblement

Music: Toto Bissainthe

Choreography: Nacho Duato

Scenic Design: Walter Nobbe

Costume Design: Nacho Duato

Lighting Design: Nicolas Fischtel

Before After (PNB Premiere)

Music: Marc Van Roon

Choreography: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Costume and Lighting Design: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

World Premiere

Music: George Antheil

Choreography: Justin Peck

Premieres pair with stunning repertory works in this absorbing mixed bill. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's (Cylindrical Shadows) critically-acclaimed signature piece, Before After, a PNB premiere, unmasks the turmoil just before a relationship ends. David Dawson's breathtaking, hyper-extended A Million Kisses to my Skin references the intoxicating bliss dancers experience while performing.Rassemblement, Nacho Duato's poignant work set to slave songs by Haitian artist Toto Bissainthe, voices communal yearning and resistance in a climate of oppression. The program also features a world premiere by New York City Ballet's rising dancer-choreographer Justin Peck, praised for creation that "seems to come easily, naturally, from a quick and brimming intelligence" (New York Observer).

Stowell & Sendak NUTCRACKER

November 28 - December 28, 2014

(Not part of PNB's subscription season. Call the PNB Box Office for details.)

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Choreography: Kent Stowell

Scenic & Costume Design: Maurice Sendak

Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli

Created by Founding Artistic Director Kent Stowell and famed author and illustrator Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are), PNB's one-of-a-kind Nutcracker has been dazzling Northwest audiences for 31 years. Join us for the final season of our beloved Nutcrackerbefore it goes into the PNB vault. PNB subscribers will get first dibs at ordering tickets for the 2014 performances of the Stowell/SendakNutcracker before tickets go on sale to the public on May 19. In 2015, PNB will unveil a new production of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker™, featuring sets and costumes by children's author and theatre designer Ian Falconer (Olivia the Pig).

Rep 3 - DON QUIXOTE (to be confirmed)

January 30 - February 8, 2015

Music: Ludwig Minkus

Choreography: Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky

with additional choreography and staging by Alexei Ratmansky

Scenic and Costume Design: Jerome Kaplan

Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls

Alexei Ratmansky's genius for revitalizing classic ballets is the talk of the dance world. America had its first look at his staging of Don Quixote when PNB premiered it to great acclaim in 2012. Vast in every sense-from Jérôme Kaplan's colossal sun-bleached sets and vibrant costumes to the expansive sweep of the choreography-Don Q is informed by Ratmansky's technical fluency punctuated by carefree humor. A perfectly crafted story ballet, the plot follows its visionary hero to the city of Barcelona, where he becomes entangled in the affairs of spirited young lovers. Bravura dancing, captivating character players, and stunning stagecraft combine with Ludwig Minkus' rousing score to deliver a tremendous theater experience to audiences of all ages.

Rep 4 - THE VERTIGINOUS THRILL OF FORSYTHE

March 13 - 22, 2015

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude (PNB Premiere)

Music: Franz Schubert

Choreography: William Forsythe

Costume Design: Stephen Galloway

Scenic and Lighting Design: William Forsythe

New Suite (PNB Premiere)

Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Luciano Berio, Gavin Bryars, George Frederic Handel, Thom Willems

Choreography: William Forsythe

Scenic and Lighting Design: William Forsythe

In the middle, somewhat elevated

Music: Thom Willems

Choreography: William Forsythe

Scenic, Costume and Lighting Design: William Forsythe

A William Forsythe triple threat, including two PNB premieres, presents distinctive works from a dance maker legendary for his radical inventiveness. Forsythe achieves perfect neo-classical form in The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, a dizzy delight of virtuoso technique and crystalline pointe work. A sampler of duets, individually re-worked for PNB, New Suite's multiple pairings articulate a diversity of forms as well as matters between the sexes. In the middle, somewhat elevated returns: endlessly prized by dancers and audiences, its relentless pace and fierce physicality serve as paradigm for Forsythe's revolutionary impact on 21st-century ballet.

SNOW WHITE

March 15 - 21, 2015

(Part of PNB's "Family Matinees" subscription package. Call the PNB Box Office for details.)

Music: Jules Massenet

Choreography: Bruce Wells

Scenic Design: Edith Whitsett

Costume Design: Pacific Northwest Ballet Costume Shop

Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli

This narrated, hour-long performance is danced by students of Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and is the perfect opportunity to introduce young children to the magic of live performance.

Rep 5 - ROMÉO ET JULIETTE

April 10 - 19, 2015

Music: Sergei Prokofiev

Choreography: Jean-Christophe Maillot

Staging: Gaby Baars

Scenic Design: Ernest Pignon-Ernest

Costume Design: Jerome Kaplan

Lighting Design: Dominique Drillot

Vivid choreographic expression, avant-garde design, and Sergei Prokofiev's passionate score knit seamlessly in Jean-Christophe Maillot's profoundly moving Roméo et Juliette, a smash hit since its 2008 PNB debut. The entire Company-arrayed in Jérôme Kaplan's ravishing costumes, framed by high, light-washed walls- accelerates the drama with cinematic momentum that's central to the ballet's intensity. But it's the dancers' fearless depiction of internal conflict-tenderness and violence, fear and pride, elation and devastation-that never fails to reward each audience with profound artistry.

REP 6 - CARMINA BURANA

May 29 - June 7, 2015

Concerto DSCH

Music: Dmitri Shostakovich

Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky

Costume Design: Holly Hynes

Lighting Design: Mark Stanley

The Moor's Pavane

Music: Henry Purcell

Choreography: Jose Limón

Costume Design: Pauline Lawrence

Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli

Carmina Burana

Music: Carl Orff

Choreography: Kent Stowell

Scenic Design: Ming Cho Lee

Costume Design: Theoni V. Aldredge; additional costumes by Larae Theige Hascall

Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli

PNB closes its season with a tremendous trio of repertory works. Alexei Ratmansky's Concerto DSCH, an "endlessly suspenseful construction [with] passages of breathtaking dance brilliance" (New York Times) returns to the stage, as does The Moor's Pavane, Jose Limón's spellbinding reduction of Shakespeare's Othello, now a celebrated masterwork of American modern dance. In Kent Stowell's primal Carmina Burana, a grand-scale synthesis of dance, chorus, and orchestra, the famous cantata's poems materialize as the entire Company unites song and score in jubilant communal experience under Carmina's colossal golden wheel of fortune.

SEASON ENCORE PERFORMANCE

Sunday, June 7, 2015

(Not part of PNB's subscription season. Tickets to this event go on sale in 2015.)

NEXT STEP choreographers' showcase

Friday, June 12, 2015

(Not part of PNB's subscription season. Tickets to this event go on sale in 2015.)

34th Annual PNB School Performances

Saturday, June 13, 2015

(Not part of PNB's subscription season. Tickets to this event go on sale in 2015.)

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets to the 2014-2015 season go on sale Monday, July 21. (Money-saving season subscriptions are available now; Nutcracker tickets go on sale Monday, May 19.

Tickets and subscriptions may be purchase through the PNB Box Office:

· Phone: 206.441.2424

· In Person: 301 Mercer Street at Seattle Center

· Online: PNB.org

For information on discount offers including 25 & Under tickets, Teen Tix, and Group Sales, visit pnb.org. While there, sign up on PNB's email list, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and the PNB blog! Be among the first to learn about PNB news, casting and performance updates, ticket offers, and more.

PNB offers a variety of free or affordably-priced special events for most of its productions, including previews, conversations, lectures, and Q&As. For more information, visit pnb.org and click on the "Events & Offers" tab under each specific production's listing.