Auidence Guide - Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre

March 10 - 13, 2016
Byham Theater, Pittsburgh
Audience Production Guide
Mixed Repertory #2
Audience Production Guide for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s
Mixed Repertory #2
March 10—13, 2016
The Byham Theater
Many thanks to the following organization for their support of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Education
Department and its programs:
Allegheny Regional Asset District
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
Anne L. and George H. Clapp Charitable Trust
Pennsylvania Department of Community and
BNY Mellon Foundation
Economic Development
Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation
PNC Bank Grow up Great
Eat ‘n Park Hospitality Group
PPG Industries, Inc.
ESB Bank
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Giant Eagle Foundation
James M. and Lucy K. Schoonmaker
The Grable Foundation
Foundation
Hefren-Tillotson, Inc.
Edith L. Trees Charitable Trust
The Heinz Endowments
UPMC Health Plan
Henry C. Frick Educational Fund of The Buhl
Foundation
Highmark Foundation
Jack Buncher Foundation
Peoples Natural Gas
This production guide was created by PBT’s Department of Education and Community Engagement, 2016
Cover photo: Alejandro Diaz, photo by Duane Rieder,
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Contents
Jardin Aux Lilas
The Man in Black
About the Ballet 4
About the Ballet 10-11
The Choreographer 5
The Choreographer 11
The Choreography 6
The Songs 12
The Meaning of Lilacs 7
The Choreography 13
The Music 7
A Fellow Feeling
Eternal Idol
About the Ballet 14
About the Ballet, 8
The Choreographer 15
The Choreographer 9
The Music 15
The Music 9
PBT Connects 16
The Inspiration 10
The Byham 16
Accessibility 16
Mixed Repertory #2
PBT dancers move through intriguing shades of emotion in this collection of works. The gravelly
vocals of Johnny Cash set the tone for James Kudelka’s The Man in Black, which blends grit and
grace in a stirring montage of scenes inspired by six of Cash's later hits. Passion prevails in Michael
Smuin’s sensuous Eternal Idol, a tender pas de deux of sculptural lines and lithe partnering, while
Antony Tudor’s poignant period drama, Jardin Aux Lilas, depicts the repressed romance of two
lovers parted by a marriage of convenience. PBT Principal Yoshiaki Nakano adds a millennial voice
to the mix with the premiere of his neoclassical A Fellow Feeling, a high-energy work set to Mozart's
Concerto #20 in D Minor. Find the cast list here.
The Mixed Repertory Format
A Mixed Rep consists of several shorter ballets that are performed together. The works may be
plotless or have a storyline; they may be thematically-related or have completely different styles of
choreography, mood, music or historical period. The programming possibilities for a mixed rep are
unlimited.
A ballet company’s repertory is the collection of all the works that they are prepared to perform,
which include full-length ballets, excerpts from full-length ballets, and short, one-act pieces. A
company alternates between the ballets in its collection, performing a different combination of works
each season. The repertory reflects the artistic style of the company, as well as the technical
abilities of the dancers.
With this production PBT performs three works for the first time: Eternal Idol, The Man in Black, and
A Fellow Feeling (a world premiere). We are thrilled to add these ballets to our repertory. This
marks the third time we’ve performed Tudor’s important work, Jardin Aux Lilas.
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Jardin Aux Lilas (Lilac Garden)
Choreography Antony Tudor
Scenery and Lighting Design Tom Lingwood
World Premiere July 26, 1936, Ballet
Rambert, London
Staging Donald Mahler
Composer Ernest Chausson, Poème for
Violin and Orchestra, Opus 25
Characters Caroline, Her Lover, The Man She
Must Marry, An Episode in His Past, Guests,
Friends and Relations
Costume Design Raymond Sovey, after
sketches by Hugh Stevenson. Costumes
courtesy of San Jose Ballet
Tudor’s ballets are filled with beautiful movement
and inventive steps, but he movement and the steps
are not ends in themselves: they are platforms for,
keyholes into character and story.
-Mindy Aloff, Exploredance.com
The interplay of feelings between these characters
was revealed in beautiful dance movements and
groupings, with subtle changes of expression, which
made each situation clear without any recourse to
mime or gesture.
-Dame Marie Rambert, founder Ballet Rambert
Luca Sbrizzi and Alexandra Kochis, photo by Rich Sofranko
About the Ballet
The premiere of Jardin Aux Lilas in 1936 is a ballet landmark.
Rather than the fantastical or fairy-tale setting that had become
standard in ballet, Antony Tudor’s work presented real-life
characters facing a situation that the audience could relate to;
the costumes and setting (from just three decades earlier) were
familiar. Its exploration, through the prescribed movements of
ballet, of the inner lives of its characters helped set a new
standard for the art form.
The setting is the gracious Edwardian era, at a pre-wedding
party in a moonlit garden, which is hedged by lilacs. Caroline
faces an arranged marriage with a successful, ambitious man
(The Man She Must Marry), though she is deeply in love with
another (Her Lover). The character called “An Episode in his
Past” is a past lover of Caroline’s fiancé, who reappears and
emotions surface between the two. The party unfolds in a series
of fleeting episodes and dramatic encounters among the four
characters, private feelings are submerged in public decorum,
though brief and tempestuous moments of true emotion break
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Amanda Cochrane, by Aimee DiAndrea
through the artifice. Tudor felt that extensive program notes—telling the audience what they were
going to see— would influence their reaction to the ballet. Tudor’s original program notes for Jardin
Aux Lilas are simple and spare: Caroline, on the eve of her marriage to the man she does not love
tries to say farewell to her lover at a garden reception. In the end, she goes off on the arm of her betrothed with hopelessness in her eyes.
See photos of New York City Ballet’s 1952 production of Lilac Garden, featuring Antony Tudor,
Tanquil le Clerc and Hugh Laing, at New York Public Library’s Digital Collection.
Watch the opening sequence of Jardin aux Lilas with former Hong Kong Ballet principal
dancer, Faye Leung
The Choreographer ∙ Antony Tudor
We do Tudor's ballets because we must. Tudor's work is our conscience.
—Mikhail Baryshnikov
Antony Tudor (1908-1987) is one of the giants of twentieth century
choreography. He began dancing professionally at age 19 with
Ballet Rambert in London, and created numerous ballets during his
time there, including Lysistrata (1932), The Planets (1934), Jardin
Aux Lilas (1936), and Dark Elegies (1937).
In 1939 he was invited by American Ballet Theatre to join its first
season. He continued to create ballets for more than 40 years,
including Pillar of Fire in 1942 and The Leaves Are Fading in 1975.
He became head of faculty of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School
in 1950 and was a founding faculty member of the Julliard School’s
Dance Division in 1951. In the 1980s he received the Capezio
Photo: by Carl Van Vechten. Image Source.
Award, the Handel Medallion (New York City’s highest cultural honor) and a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime contributions to American culture.
Tudor believed that the “truth” of movement reveals emotion and character and that his job as a
coach and choreographer was to get dancers to find that truth—to internalize their roles. He utilized
a simple movement vocabulary, including natural gestures and movements, to create choreography
that was dense with emotional content. For Tudor every gesture, step or movement had weight. As
Joseph Carman notes in Dance Magazine (January 2008), “An arabesque can signify distress or
hope, while a pirouette can signal desperation. . . To dance the choreography is to embody the
drama.”
Tudor sought another truth through the study and practice of Zen Buddhism, eventually becoming
president of the First Zen Institute of America. While continuing to teach and choreograph, he
moved into the Institute, shedding most of his belongings. He is buried in the Institute’s plot at
Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City.
Read more about Antony Tudor’s life and work at the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust website and
watch a video of former ABT dancers Amanda McKerrow and John Gardiner discussing Tudor’s
style.
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The Choreography
The action in the ballet develops as a series of
encounters between Caroline and her Lover, and
between the Man She Must Marry and the Episode in
His Past. Caroline and her Lover are trying to steal a
few last moments together; the Episode wants to
convince the fiancé to return to her (at times literally
throwing herself at him). The couples are constantly
interrupted by the rest of the party guests, some of
whom understand what’s really happening.
Alexandre Silva and Julia Erickson, photo by Aimee DiAndrea
Tudor’s movement vocabulary in Lilac Garden is
classical ballet without the fireworks associated with
today’s bravura dancing. It is demanding, to be sure,
but economical, and very focused on communicating
the actions and feelings of the characters to the
audience. He did not use traditional ballet mime but
relied on ballet movement alone to translate the
undercurrent of thought and emotion that flows
beneath the surface of the interactions on stage. He
stressed that each movement a dancer makes
should be clear and have intention: and that the turn
of the head or the gesture of an arm or hand, or the
position of an arabesque can turn ballet dancing into
language that we all recognize. Famed American
choreographer Agnes De Mille said that with Tudor,
an arabesque is no longer an arabesque, “it’s a
question or a sigh.”
Take a deep breath . . .
The first action in the ballet is a breath—the
audience sees Caroline breathe deeply as she
stands next to The Man She Must Marry. In one of
the last moments of the ballet, she exhales.
Artist: Gabrielle Thurlow as Caroline’s friend, photo by
Aimee DiAndrea
“The Freeze”
The climactic moment of the ballet actually contains very little movement. As the party comes to a
close and time is running out for Caroline and the Lover to be together, Caroline falls in a faint into
the arms of The Man She Must Marry. All of the characters on stage freeze, and Caroline alone
rises, and moves, in halting steps, reaching out to the Episode in his Past and to her Lover. Quickly
she “rewinds” and moves back to her fiancé and the action begins again. Here Caroline seems to
be reaching back to a moment that’s frozen, a moment out of time. It’s as if she’s overcome by a
brief reverie, a flicker of a memory. This section of the ballet has been compared to the idea of
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involuntary memory, explored by Marcel Proust in the
novel In Search of Lost Time: Remembrance of things
Past (ca. 1913)—in which sensory cues in everyday
life trigger recollections of the past. For Proust it was
the scent of a pastry dipped in tea; for Caroline,
perhaps the scent was of lilacs.
Watch the “freeze” sequence in the ballet in this
Alabama Ballet video.
The Meaning of Lilacs in Jardin Aux Lilas
In the Victorian Era lilacs were given to remind
someone of a past, lost love. In the last moments of
the ballet, the Lover presses a lilac into Caroline’s
hands, commemorating the love they were losing, and
literally, giving her the past.
Tudor urged the dancers portraying Caroline to try to
conjure the scent of lilacs to help them understand and
“become” Caroline. Tudor even sprayed lilac scent in
the theater for the opening night of Lilac Garden.
Alexandra Kochis and Robert Moore, photo by Aimee DiAndrea
The Music
The music for Jardin Aux Lilas is Ernest Chausson’s Poème (Op. 25)
for violin and orchestra. It doesn’t have a formal structure but rather
has been called “rhapsodic and moody”—perhaps an expression of his
own tendency toward melancholy and introspection. It was initially rejected by publishers who thought it “bizarre” and too difficult to play,
however at its Paris premiere in 1897 the audience roared its approval.
Today it is a staple of the serious violinist’s repertoire and has been
recorded by numerous performers, including Joshua Bell and Itzhak
Perlman.
Chausson (1855-1899) was a French Romantic composer who studied
under opera composer Jules Massenet. He was born into wealth,
trained in and studied law, and didn’t start composing until relatively
late. He wrote 39 opus-numbered works, one opera, Le Rois Arthus (King Arthur), one highly regarded symphony (Symphony in B-flat) and a haunting song cycle, Poème de l’amour et de la
mer. He was acquainted with a number of the great artists of his day, including Claude Monet,
Claude Debussy, Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas. He died tragically young, at the height of his
career and talent, in a freak bicycle accident.
Listen to a recording of Poème or read a biography of Chausson at Allmusic.com
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Eternal Idol
Choreography Michael Smuin
Staging Celia Fushille, Artistic Director of Smuin
Ballet
Composer Frédéric Chopin, Concerto No.2
Costume Design Marcos Paredes
Lighting Design David K.H. Elliott
World Premiere December 4, 1969 Academy of
Music, Brooklyn, New York
This dance gives us a glimpse into an eternal romance
between two people in love forever. A love that is portrayed
through the choreography as very intimate, gentle
and sensual.
-Contemporary Dance Videos, 2016
Artists: Luca Sbrizzi and Gabielle Thurlow, photo by Duane Rieder
About the Ballet
Eternal Idol is a pas de deux created by Michael Smuin for American Ballet Theatre in 1969 as a
tribute to French sculptor Auguste Rodin. It alludes to and explores Rodin’s aesthetic, referencing
two of his most renowned sculptures: “The Eternal Idol,” which depicts a man leaning against a
woman in a pose both intimate and reverential; and “The Kiss,” a sculpture showing a couple
wrapped in an embrace. These and many of Rodin’s other works celebrate human physicality and
the expression of tenderness and passion in romantic relationships.
In the ballet, Smuin brings Rodin’s sculptures to life, transforming them into a sensuous movement
sequence that utilizes classical technique but with a form that is fluid and malleable. Smuin molds
the dancers’ bodies like a sculptor, positioning and repositioning torsos, arms, and legs. He gives
them few solo moments, preferring to intertwine them or to have them mirror each other’s
movements—revealing a relationship that is in sync physically and emotionally. Chopin’s piano
concerto adds a poetic current to the choreography. Eternal Idol is a classically elegant ballet in
the vibrant, eclectic, and astonishingly broad body of Smuin’s repertoire.
Watch a video of Eternal Idol, with PBT School Co-Director Marjorie Grundvig and Lee Bell.
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The Choreographer · Michael Smuin
Known for the vibrant, expressive and brassy work he created...Smuin’s
range was voluminous...
—SFGate, 2007
Photo: Smuin Ballet website.
Michael Smuin (1938 – 2007) was a ballet dancer, choreographer
and theatre director. He was co-founder and director of his own
dance company, the Smuin Ballet in San Francisco. Born in
Missoula, Montana, Smuin was a principal dancer with the
American Ballet Theatre and the San Francisco Ballet, for which
he served as co-artistic director from 1973 through 1985. In 1994
he founded Smuin Ballet. He also choreographed for the Dance
Theatre of Harlem, Washington Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet,
and Milwaukee Ballet.
Smuin was a master of the fine points of classical choreography. But his range was enormous and
his ability to connect with the audience set him apart. He was a veteran Broadway and film
choreographer also, and designed works for television, commercials and even the occasional circus
act. Smuin’s Broadway credits include Anything Goes (1987), for which he won a Tony award for
Best Choreography, Sophisticated Ladies (1981) and Shogun: The Musical (1990), for which he
was choreographer and director. Smuin’s film credits illustrate his ability to create in broad and
diverse dance styles, and include The Fantasticks, A Walk in the Clouds, The Joy Luck Club, The
Cotton Club, Rumble Fish and a dance sequence in Return of the Jedi.
Watch a clip from Anything Goes performed at the 1988 Tony Awards.
The Music
The music for Eternal Idol is Frédéric Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 written in 1830. Of his two piano
concertos, this piece was written first, but published following
what is now known as Concerto No.1 (the pieces were published
in reverse order of their composition). The piece contains a lyrical
melody, and is often described as delicate and sensitive.
Chopin (1810– 1849) was a Polish-French Romantic composer
who began his studies under Wojciech Zywny and continued his
studies with Jozef Elsner. As part of a family of musicians, many
scholars also recognize Ludwika, his sister, as his first teacher.
He wrote 2 piano concertos, 4 ballades, 24 preludes, etudes,
polonaises, waltzes, mazurkas, nocturnes and impromptus during
his short career. He died at the age of 39 from tuberculosis.
Source: Britannica.com
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The Inspiration
Eternal Idol is a tribute to nineteenth century sculptor, Auguste Rodin
(1840–1917). Rodin is revered for his realistic depiction of the human
form and is known for portraying the tenderness, passion and
sensuality of human relationships. Rodin’s works “The Eternal Idol”
and “The Kiss” were inspirations to Smuin as he created the concept
and movement of the ballet.
At the start of the ballet, the dancers are in a pose similar to that
depicted in “The Eternal Idol” (below, left); midway through the ballet
you can see the pose Rodin created in “The Kiss.”
Rodin, ca. 1862, Wikepedia.com
Both “The Eternal Idol” and “The Kiss”
are from Rodin’s larger work, “The
Gates of Hell,” a monumental
sculptural work that was based on
Dante’s Inferno. The work was
commissioned as the entrance feature
of a proposed decorative arts museum
in Paris that was never built. Rodin’s
famous sculpture “The Thinker” was
also originally a part of “The Gates of
Hell.” Some sculptures that were a
part of this work were enlarged and
became works of art on their own.
Source: musee-rodin.fr
The Man in Black
Choreography James Kudelka
Staging Gerard Charles
Composer Songs sung by Johnny Cash
Costume Design Jim Searle, Hoax Couture
Lighting Design Trad A. Burns (recreated by Christina
Giannelli)
World Premiere April 24, 2010, BalletMet Columbus, OH
Alejandro Diaz, photo by Duane Rieder
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About the Ballet
The Man in Black, originally commissioned by BalletMet
Columbus and given its premiere in April 2010, is a celebration
of American working-class grit and of the man whose gravely
voice embodied it so movingly, Johnny Cash. Six Cash songs —
all covers from the later part of his career — are given visual
resonance in a suite of dances for an ensemble of three men
and a woman, all in cowboy boots.
The choreography riffs off several popular American countrywestern dance styles — line, square, swing, step dancing — retaining their vernacular, almost colloquial character yet generating imagery that complements the songs’ varying moods and
emotional undercurrents. The “damn your eyes” defiance of the
traditional folk song Sam Hall contrasts with the aching melancholy of Trent Reznor’s (Nine Inch Nails) Hurt and heartache of
Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind. Dance chains
unravel and reassemble in surprising ways. Formations stomp
decisively or glide across the stage as if wafted by a desert
Lucius Kirst, Diana Yohe, Joseph Parr; Photo
by Aimee DiAndrea
breeze. The fluid partnering and sculptural groupings generate a
stream of arrestingly poetic images. Rather than portray defined characters, the dancers project a naturalistic immediacy that connects at a visceral level with
the spirit of the music. The choreography, like the songs that inspire it, is an ode to the human spirit,
socially congenial yet proudly independent; vulnerable yet resilient.
--The Man in Black program notes
For an introduction to the atmosphere and movement of the ballet, watch this trailer for the National
Ballet of Canada’s performance.
The Choreographer
I’ve always said that my pieces are about love, sex and death,
because those are the best things to dance about, those are the best
things to write about, sing about—a combination of that is at the base
of everything . . .
-James Kudelka
James Kudelka is widely acknowledged as one of North
America’s most innovative choreographers. His mastery of both
classical ballet and modern, contemporary dance has earned
him commissions from companies – some 25 in all – as
stylistically diverse as American Ballet Theatre, Chicago’s
Hubbard Street Dance and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal.
As a student at Canada’s National Ballet School, Mr. Kudelka
demonstrated a choreographic interest in exploring innovative
approaches. While adept in the classical ballet vocabulary, he
infuses it with a contemporary sensibility acquired from his
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Artsalive.ca, photo by Michael Slobodian
intense interest in modern movement idioms. Mr. Kudelka’s work covers an impressive range, from
virtuoso pas de deux, through large scale and always arresting adaptations of such classics as
Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Cinderella, to boldly innovative creative collaborations with
dancers, designers and musicians.
Mr. Kudelka has never been afraid to tackle psychologically challenging subject matter in his story
ballets – he views dance as a primary medium of artistic discourse – and through his gift for
movement metaphor infuses poetic, emotional meaning into his many non-narrative works.
After nine distinguished years as Artistic Director of The National Ballet of Canada (1996 to 2005).
Mr. Kudelka continues to undertake collaborative projects that engage and challenge him as a
choreographer. He was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005, Canada’s highest honor
recognizing contributions to Canada and to humanity.
Watch Atlanta Ballet’s Choreographer Spotlight and National Ballet of Canada’s “Innovation: Inside
the Studio with James Kudelka.” Read a more extensive biography at the Canadian Encyclopedia
online.
The Songs
A controlled and seasoned performance like Cash’s says something about time, and aging. . . and the ballet
stage can make room for this.
-James Kudelka
All of the songs in the ballet are all covers from the later career of
the legendary Johnny Cash. Kudelka has said that his
“assignment” from BalletMet when he was commissioned to do
the work was to create a dance to popular music. When given a
list of potential composers/singers, he chose Johnny Cash. The
music was familiar to him, having heard, while he was growing
up, his brothers play Cash’s early albums; he had also recently
seen the film Walk the Line, a 2005 look at the singer’s life.
Kudelka chose
Cash’s voice in these songs is world-weary and poignant. In Sam
Hall the tone is upbeat and feisty; but the others are tinged with
melancholy. They seem to resonate with the experiences, wisPhoto Joel Baldwin / Wikemedia Commons
dom and pain of a life that had seen both extreme success and
profound despair. One reviewer noted that the songs provide a
“haunting heartbeat” for Kudelka’s equally evocative choreography. Click on the song title to listen:
In My Life, The Beatles
Four Strong Winds, Ian Tyson
Sam Hall, Traditional folk song
If You Could Read My Mind, Gordon Lightfoot
Hurt, Trent Reznor (this link is to the music video,
which won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Music Video)
Further on Up the Road, Bruce Springsteen
Read a short biography of Johnny Cash at the Rolling Stone website.
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The Choreography
The choreography in The Man in Black
is a fluid blend of country-western
dance styles with classical ballet form
and positioning woven into and out of
the steps and motions. One of the
hallmarks of the ballet’s style is the
connectedness among the dancers:
they link hands and arms and legs and
are almost always dancing as a group.
The dancers move as a mass at times,
dependent upon each other to be able
to carry out their steps; at other times
one dancer is in opposition to the
group, and sometimes seems to yearn
to be reunited with it.
This connectedness makes for some difficult positioning and
partnering: the dancers have to be in the exact right place at the
right time to pull off the complex patterns. The lifts are
complicated also, requiring the participation of each dancer in
the group.
Despite its complexity the choreography is neither flashy nor
exaggerated (in that way reminiscent of Tudor’s style), and it
almost never stops, even though there is no music between
songs—the constant motion can feel like a metaphor for time
marching on.
This Joffrey Ballet video takes a brief look at the choreography
of the ballet.
Artists, both photos: Diana Yohe, Corey Bourbonniere, Lucius Kirst, Joseph Parr. By Aimee
DiAndrea
Cowboy boots are obviously not what ballet dancers
usually wear to work! They take some getting used to:
they are quite rigid and shift the weight of the dancers’
bodies. They also allow the dancers to glide and slide
across the floor, and make the choreography feel
weighted and grounded. Their sounds give the ballet a
unique movement texture.
Artist: Alejandro Diaz, photo by Aimee DiAndrea
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A Fellow Feeling
Choreography Yoshiaki Nakano
Music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Concerto No. 20 in
D Minor for Piano and Orchestra
Costume Design Janet Marie Groom
Lighting Design Christina Giannelli
Number of Dancers 18
World Premiere March 10, 2016, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
Artists: Julia Erickson and Alexandre Silva; Photo by
Kelly Perkovich
About the Ballet
You can tell that as he’s choreographed he’s done it to complement
the dancers’ style since he knows us so well.
-Diana Yohe, PBT corps de ballet dancer
PBT Artistic Director Terrence Orr asked Principal Dancer Yoshiaki
Nakano to create a one-movement ballet for PBT’s Hartwood Acres
performance in August 2015. The ballet was so skillfully executed
and such a success that Mr. Orr requested that Nakano add to it.
Nakano created the second and third movements of the ballet in
the last few months.
A Fellow Feeling is a neo-classical ballet for nine couples. Nakano
has said that his idea for the ballet is simple and primarily a
response to the beautiful and complex Mozart Concerto, but he
also designed the choreography with the strengths and abilities of
his fellow Company members in mind. His movement vocabulary
encourages the personalities and technical skill of individual
dancers to shine, while the overall effect is that of a large ensemble
work that exemplifies esprit de corps of the PBT Company—the
“fellow feeling” that they share.
Artist: Julia Erickson; photo by Aimee DiAndrea
The costumes, designed by PBT Costumier Janet Marie Groom, are entirely white except for a
band of color at the waist and wrists. Nakano selected the color for each couple based on their
personalities.
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The Choreographer
Yoshiaki Nakano received his early training from
his mother Mitsuko at her studio (Elite Ballet
Studio) in Osaka, Japan, and later trained at San
Francisco Ballet School and Pittsburgh Ballet
Theatre School’s Graduate Program. Since the
age of 16, Mitsuko nurtured Yoshiaki as a
choreographer by constantly asking him to assist
her in the classroom and choreograph for their
student showcase every year. He has now had
original works performed for Elite Ballet Studio’s
annual Gala for the past three years, and has
also choreographed for Dancers Trust for the past
three years, an annual performance and
fundraiser or the Dancers Trust here in
Pittsburgh. Nakano has choreographed for many
students who won prizes at international
competitions in Japan, and a second place win in
YAGP Pittsburgh. In 2015 he had the opportunity
to choreograph an original work on the Pittsburgh
Ballet Theatre Graduate Program for their
Pre- Professional showcase. This is Nakano’s
first premiere with a professional company.
Photo by Duane Rieder
Nakano in Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, photo by Rich
Sofranko
Watch an interview with Nakano during a rehearsal for A Fellow Feeling at Post-Gazette.com.
The Music
The music for A Fellow Feeling is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano
Concerto No. 20 in D minor, composed in 1785 and scored for solo
piano, flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets,
timpani and strings. Mozart wrote it when he was 29 years old, at the
height of his creative power. The work is alternately stormy and serene, and is rich with melodic invention.
Listen to a BBC examination of the Concerto or read brief program
notes at the San Francisco Symphony website. You can also hear the
Concerto in the 1984 film Amadeus: the second movement was used
in the film’s final minutes, beautifully asserting Mozart’s brilliance.
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PBT Connects
Join us to learn more about Mixed Repertory #2 at our pre- and post-performance educational
programs:
Afterthoughts, Friday, March 11, 10:30 pm (directly after the performance). In the Theater.
Guests: Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr and A Fellow Feeling choreographer Yoshiaki Nakano.
*Insights, Saturday, March 12, 7 pm. Guests: Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr and PBT
School Co-director Marjorie Grundvig. Fulton mini-theater at the Byham.
Talks with Terry, Sunday, March 13, 1 pm. In the Theater. Guest: Artistic Director Terrence
S. Orr.
* Reservation requested, please call 412-454-9109 or email education@pittsburghballet.org
The Byham
Originally built in 1903 as the Gayety Theater, The Pittsburgh
Cultural Trust purchased this 1300-seat venue, then called the
Fulton Theater, in 1988. The Trust renovated and reopened
the Fulton Theater in 1991. The theater was renamed the
Byham Theater in 1995, in recognition of a gift from William C.
and Carolyn M. Byham. Today, the Byham Theater is home to
a wide variety of performing arts, including dance, music,
theater, film, and family-friendly events held throughout the
year.
Photo: Culturaltust.org
Accessibility at the Theater
PBT is committed to being an inclusive arts organization that serves everyone in the greater
Pittsburgh community through its productions and programs.
In conjunction with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the following accessibility services are provided
to patrons:

Wheelchair accessibility

Braille and large print programs

Assistive listening devices

Audio recordings of select program notes

Audio-described performances for blind or vision-impaired patrons: Sunday, March 13, 2016 at
2pm for Mixed Repertory #2.

Closed-captioning for The Man in Black in Mixed Repertory #2

Should you have a special request that is not listed above or have any questions about our accessibility services, please contact the Education Department at 412-454-9109 or
accessibility@pittsburghballet.org. A two-week advance notice for accommodations not listed
above, such as ASL interpretation or captioning, is kindly requested.
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