From the official webpage of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
ALL THE DATES OF THE SHOW:
Friday, March 8, 2013 - 8:00pm
Saturday, March 9, 2013 - 8:00pm
Sunday, March 10, 2013 - 2:00pm
Thursday, March 14, 2013 - 7:30pm
Friday, March 15, 2013 - 8:00pm
Saturday, March 16, 2013 - 8:00pm
Sunday, March 17, 2013 - 2:00pm
August Wilson Center for African American Culture
980 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
p: 412.258.2700
f: 412.258.2701
f: 412.258.2701
There is time until St. Patrick's Day (Sunday, March17th, 2013) to see this interesting mixed repertory of ballets. The title is "Unspoken" because the repertory is composed by three (very) different stories, told without words, but only with the languages of the dance, the theater, the music.
On the booklet of the show and the official website www.pbt.org you can find a detailed description of each piéce.
The three ballets, with a 15-minutes-intervallo between each of them (also to protect the uniqueness of each ballet) are the following:
***
Serenade
Jardin Aux Lilas (Lilac Garden)
Drink only with Thine Eyes
***
Each ballet is a story and each story is told via a precise "media", that is not the word.
Serenade, for example, is all about the body and the music. It's the choreography that puts together the episodes of the narration. Which is pretty interesting, because it's a mix of real life (of George Balanchine) and art (the ballet itself).
Balanchine, invited to the US from Russia, created this ballet from Serenade in C mayor for String Orchestra, by Tchaikovsky. It's the story of the long road < a dancer must travel from student novice to ballerina >.
[image from the official PBT page http://www.pbt.org/serenade © The George Balanchine Trust]
Jardin Aux Lilas was the only piece with historical costumes, very well designed (by Raymond Sovey after sketches by Hugh Stevenson) to match the choreography (by Antony Tudor) and the personal story of each character. Despite recognizing that both music and choreography were good, I must admit that I was totally captured bu the costumes. They are so clear in the intent and the make-up as well is very eloquent.
The story told here is about a girl "Caroline" that is going to have an arranged marriage with "The Man She Must Marry". At the farewell party that precedes the ceremony, though, she see "Her lover".
There is also the figure called "An Episode in His Past" who's a mistress that seems to have been in confidence with both the fiancé and the lover.
An image from the original choreography of 1936 by A. Tudor.
Dancers (from left): Hugh Laing, Maude Lloyd, Antony Tudor, and Peggy van Praagh
(Photograph from the Dance Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)
Drink only with Thine Eyes is much modern, in terms of choreography and costumes. I loved the simplicity of the white costumes, that also included leggings for the females and comfortable pants for the males. But it's music that is really speaking here - perfectly followed by the dancers that reinforce each note.
This ballet is the only with live music, performed by the company pianist Yoland Collin, native from Belgium. The music is very fresh and joyful, the dance has to be precise, finely crafted and sparse.
There was something that reminded me of Pulcinella, in the costumes and in the often sparkling dance.
All the three pieces are very complex, but easy to follow and pleasant to see. They totally drag you in the story, thanks to the fluidity of the dancers.
I tried to underline in particular one main narrator for each story, but as in all the best stories, it's never a solo. The big work of this group of people, behind the scenes or on the stage, leads to a final result that really deserve to be seen. Even if you are not an expert of ballet. These stories are a very good lesson of "how to do ballet".
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