PNB premieres new Justin Peck work

For Director’s Choice, the second program of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 2014-15 season, Artistic Director Peter Boal has selected two PNB premieres paired with stunning repertory works. This absorbing mixed-bill will open this weekend at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall in Seattle, Washington.

Opening the program, 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. Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s (Cylindrical Shadows) critically-acclaimed signature piece, Before After, a PNB premiere, unmasks the turmoil just before a relationship ends.

The program will close with Debonair, a world premiere by New York City Ballet’s rising star Justin Peck, praised for “electrifying classical dance with [his] fresh vision” (Wall Street Journal). In July of this year, Peck was appointed by Ballet-Master-in-Chief Peter Martins as NYCB’s second resident choreographer (after Christopher Wheeldon, resident choreographer from 2001 to 2008.). Since his debut as a choreographer in 2009, he has created works for NYCB, the New York Choreographic Institute, the School of American Ballet, Miami City Ballet, L.A. Dance Project, New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, the Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival, Skidmore College and more. Debonair will feature music by George Antheil (Serenade for String Orchestra No. 1, 1948) 
and costume design by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung.

Performances also include a musical prelude to shine the spotlight on the nationally renowned PNB Orchestra, currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Director’s Choice runs for seven performances only on November 7-16 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Tickets start at just $28 and may be purchased by calling the PNB Box Office at 206.441.2424, online at PNB.org or in person at the PNB Box Office, located at 301 Mercer Street in Seattle.

Photo: PNB rehearsing Justin Peck’s first original work for the company. Photo courtesy of PNB.