Home >  A & E

Sunday, February 24, 2002

By Jane Vranish

Almost everything old will be new again during the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's 2002-03 season. And that's something to be excited about, says artistic director Terrence Orr, who will be celebrating his sixth season with the company.

The climax of the 1999 season will provide the opening fireworks next year when Orr brings back PBT's jazz hit, "Indigo in Motion."

	Soloists Kristin Wenrick and Richard Bowman rehearse Kevin O'Day's "on the spot ...," the first section of "Indigo in Motion," at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre studios in April 2000. The jazz hit will open PBT's 2002-03 season from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

"We'll finish up this season with a new work from Kevin O'Day [to music by Sting] and then open next season with his piece," Orr says of "on the spot ...," which is the first segment of "Indigo." He calls O'Day "one of the most creative and innovative artists I know, one who comes in with no preconceived ideas and goes off on a tangent."

Singer Vivian Reed ("You forget about her energy until you see her") will again star in Lynne Taylor Corbett's "More Than a Song," a tribute to Lena Horne. And the evening will conclude with Dwight Rhoden's "Straylifelushhorn," based on Billy Strayhorn music.

Says Orr, "Dwight is one of my favorite choreographers because he does give a challenge not only to the dancers but to the audience. His vocabulary and musicality are wonderful, along with his use of visual imagery. It has a big impact on new audience members, while the traditional audiences also get caught up in it."

All of the musicians, save Stanley Turrentine, who died last year, will be back, including Ray Brown and local artists from the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild.

Next on tap will be the traditional "Nutcracker." But, as announced previously in the Post-Gazette, Orr will be choreographing a new $2 million production with an American accent.

"I'm getting more and more excited," he says of the ballet, which will have its roots in Pittsburgh, circa 1904. In a room adjacent to his PBT office, he unveils the miniature scenic design and shows off a surprisingly classic Mount Washington snow scene overlooking the Point with "the old bridge."

Orr has been working with a librettist and illusionist to ensure that his "Nutcracker" grasps a certain poetic magic.

He describes the transformation scene in greater detail, how "everything grows in perspective until you see everything as if you were a little mouse." Little mice will turn into rats, and an ottoman will become 7 feet tall. The tree will grow, then move off stage where the final spurt will be demonstrated with giant bottom limbs that unfold onto the stage.

	PBT 2002-03 schedule Oct. 31-Nov. 3: "Indigo in Motion." Dec. 6-29: "The Nutcracker." Feb. 13-16: "Don Quixote." April 10-13: "Mosaic." May 8-11: "Cleopatra." All performances at the Benedum Center. For ticket and subscription information, call 412-281-0360 or visit www.pbt.org

Orr then points to his "Nutcracker Bible," a collection of drawings which include a Gingerbread Man that can be pulled apart, Chinese dancers with ribbons and a dragon, and (instead of Mother Ginger) a ringmaster on stilts with 12 little clowns instead of Polichinelles.

PBT also will bring back one of Orr's early successes, "Don Quixote." He admits he will be "tinkering" with the production, as he has done previously with other full-length classics revitalized by the company. Costumes and sets will come from American Ballet Theatre.

Ben Stevenson's "Cleopatra" will sail back into Pittsburgh for the season finale.

"It's one of our all-time box-office draws," notes Orr. "I think it's a wonderful spectacle, very well staged, with outstanding creative work by scenic designer Thomas Boyd. I love the opening scene where the stage curtains are attached to Cleopatra's dress and she walks off with that wonderful cape. What a great moment!"

Stevenson's full-length ballets have become a staple at PBT, with "Cinderella," "Dracula" and "Alice in Wonderland" entering the repertoire. But Orr was able to parlay that into an opportunity to secure a second Stevenson ballet next season. Called "Four Last Songs," it is set to the Richard Strauss' score. Orr had tried before to get the ballet -- "the best work Ben has ever done" -- but couldn't absorb the cost of the production until this year.

"Four Last Songs," with its "wonderful undulating set" and "symphonic" approach, will form the centerpiece for "Mosaic," an evening of mixed repertory. Orr will present a second Rhoden ballet, "7th Heaven," which is set to Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 and has demonstrated enormous popularity with audiences in two previous performances. He also will have the Pittsburgh premiere of George Balanchine's "Divertimento No. 15," known as a "ballet of aristocracy." It had its world premiere in New York City in 1956 with former PBT artistic director Patricia Wilde in the original cast.

It will be a season in which certain threads emerge under Orr's directorship.

"The dancers are more versatile and stronger technically and artistically," he states. "And now we have a lot more depth, a very long bench. It was most noticeable in the 'Nutcracker,' where three of our four ballerinas were out with injuries. We didn't miss a beat."

To showcase the company, Orr will continue to present full-length theatrical pieces that are the backbone of PBT, as well as "wonderful new Balanchine ballets, which are a Pittsburgh tradition." But most importantly, Orr wants to continue to present "creative works done with world-class choreography. Then it only needs to presented around the world."

Jane Vranish is a free-lance dance and music critic for the Post-Gazette.