The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre will open its 2009-2010 season Friday with a traditional rendition of "The Sleeping Beauty."

Other classics will follow, including "The Nutcracker" for the holiday season and "Swan Lake" in April. But this season will be far from ordinary. This year marks PBT's 40th anniversary, and artistic director Terrence Orr will commemorate the occasion by showcasing not only classics but starkly contemporary works.

Productions of "Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project" next month and "Company B" and "In the Upper Room" in February will provide the season with a dose of edginess.

These pieces "give a nice balance to the whole year," said Orr, who hopes to perform more new works such as "Light" in the future to complement the company's more traditional repertoire.

"That's what the art form is about," he said. "It's [about] preserving the rich history of dance, and it's also about moving forward."

"The Sleeping Beauty" falls under the history side, with The PBT's full company and dancers from the PBT School performing to Tchaikovsky's musical score.

"I'm changing [the production] around a bit," Orr said. "I cut out some sections [and] re-choreographed some sections to spruce it up [and] to have a little more dancing in it."

The company traces its history back to 1969, when it started as an affiliate of Point Park University. Under the leadership of artistic director Nicolas Petrov, a current professor with Point Park's conservatory of performing arts, and board chair Loti Falk, PBT performed its first subscription season in 1970 to sold-out audiences.

Over the next decade, the company saw the arrival and departure of several artistic directors, ended its affiliation with Point Park and started to develop the PBT School. As the artistic directors changed, so did the company's repertoire. Patrick Frantz increased the contemporary works the company performed.

By the time former New York City Ballet principal dancer Patricia Wilde became artistic director in 1982, PBT was one of the largest ballet troupes in the country. Wilde shared with dancers the technique she'd learned while training with New York City Ballet co-founder George Balanchine.

"I don't think they had done any Balanchine before I came," Wilde said. "Mr. Balanchine always said that his ballets give the dancers something to work on so that they would improve constantly in their performances. ... [PBT] was eventually able to do his most difficult ballets and do them very well."

Wilde's time as artistic director ended in 1997 when Orr joined the company.

In conjunction with "The Sleeping Beauty" opening, an exhibition of costumes from past PBT productions will be displayed Downtown at PPG Place, Fifth Avenue Place and One Oxford Centre from Friday until Dec. 29.

PBT also plans to celebrate its anniversary with the 24th Pointe in Time ball, featuring live swing, salsa and an auction, and the first-ever afterpointe! post-ball party on Oct. 24 at the Hilton, Downtown.

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