The company will be dancing six mixed repertory performances comprised of a variety of works per night.
PROGRAM A – Nov 14th at 7:30pm, Nov 16th at 8pm, Nov 17th 8pm, Nov 18th at 2pm
PROGRAM B – Nov 15th at 7:30pm, Nov 17th at 2pm
• Serenade by George Balanchine
• Concerto Barocco by George Balanchine
• Carmina Burana by Matthew Neenan
• As It’s Going by Matthew Neenan
• Lambarena by Val Caniparoli
Since its inception in 1963, Pennsylvania Ballet has been at the forefront of dance in America and is widely regarded as one of the premier ballet companies in the nation. The Company was established by Barbara Weisberger, a Balanchine protégée, through a Ford Foundation initiative to develop regional professional dance companies. During its first decade, the Company forged the unique identity for which it is still known today: a diverse classical repertoire with a Balanchine backbone performed by versatile dancers whose energy and exuberance are enduring Company signatures.
“We are very excited to show New York audiences our spirited repertoire of American tradition and abstract modernism, including a very exciting staging of Carmina Burana by Matthew Neenan,” says Artistic Director Roy Kaiser. “We want to create dances that not only tell humorous, dramatic, or captivating stories, but also take the art form further and encourage the audience to see dance in a new light.”
Program A
Serenade is named after its music — Tschaikovsky’s Serenade in C major for String Orchestra — and the ballet tells the story musically and choreographically, without any extraneous narrative. The score includes four danceable movements with different qualities suggestive of different emotions and human situations, the four movements are danced in the following order, without interruption: Piece in the Form of a Sonatine: Andante non troppo, Allegro; Waltz; Tema Russo: Andante, Allegro con spirito; Elegy. Serenade was Balanchine’s first ballet choreographed in the United States.
Carmina Burana is based on 13th century poems and songs, Carl Orff’s “secular cantata.” The poems on which the music is based were composed by traveling minstrels who decide to abandon their sacred beliefs in favor of all the secular pleasures that life has to offer. The ballet, in five parts, is an abstract re-telling of their experiences. Company Member and Choreographer Matthew Neenan was commissioned to re-envision and recreate Carmina Burana. For the original score, Orff selected 25 songs and arranged them into three groups, creating an unforgettable musical experience. Neenan returned to this original version for his incarnation, which The Philadelphia Inquirer called “simply scintillating” at its World Premiere in March 2007.
Program B
Concerto Barocco is a classic ballet in three movements which was premiered by the American Ballet Caravan (now New York City Ballet) at Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro on June 27, 1941. In 1951, Balanchine eliminated the costumes and instead dressed the dancers in rehearsal clothing. (This was the beginning of what would be customary Balanchine costuming for contemporary works.) Set to Bach’s Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, Concerto Barocco has no subject matter of its own, but is designed to illustrate the rhythms, intensities and emotional hues of the score. The two female principal dancers personify the violins in the score. Concerto Barocco was the first piece ever performed by Pennsylvania Ballet in Manhattan, at City Center in January 1968.
As It’s Going, a ballet in seven movements, set to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, takes its title from an Anna Akhmatova poem. Shostakovich and Akhmatova were both repressed as artists during the Stalinist regime in Russia; their work is now widely recognized and celebrated throughout the world. 2006 was the centennial year of Shostakovich's birth. Choreographed and staged by Matthew Neenan, this piece was characterized as “engraving rich textures on Pennsylvania Ballet with his artistic dialogues” by Lewis Whittington in Dance Magazine.
Val Caniparoli's Lambarena was inspired by a score of the same name that blends traditional African rhythms and melodies with extended passages from Johann Sebastian Bach. In response to this exciting and unusual piece of music, and seeking to make a “joyous celebration of dancing,” Caniparoli choreographed an emotionfilled work in eight movements that boldly merges the vocabularies of classical ballet and African dance. Pennsylvania Ballet will appear for 6 performances only, November 14-18, 2007 at City Center (55th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenue). The Company will be performing Program A on November 14th at 7:30pm, November 16th at 8pm, November 17th at 8pm, and November 18th at 2pm and Program B on November 15th at 7:30pm and November 17th at 2pm. Tickets, ranging from $25 to $110. -- www.paballet.org
