PBT’S LATEST: ‘HERE + NOW’
PBT features Staycee Pearl and other black choreographers
While many ballet performances include works by choreographers who lived decades or even a century ago, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s latest mixed repertory program features only living luminaries, including two with local ties.
“Here + Now,” which opens Friday and runs through March 29, has a world premiere by Pittsburgh-based choreographer Staycee Pearl and a piece choreographed by Lincoln-Lemington native Kyle Abraham. Rounding out the program are works by longtime PBT collaborator Dwight Rhoden and a company premiere from Nacho Duato. All performances are at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Downtown.
For PBT’s return to the venue,
artistic director Terrence Orr wanted the program to be a celebration of black choreographers. PBT tapped Ms. Pearl to be an artist in residence this season and asked her to choreograph an original work for the company
while working with dancers in the PBT School.
“She’s just a wonderful jewel,” Mr. Orr says. “Working with her in collaboration has been fantastic.”
In 2010, the STAYCEE PEARL dance project debuted at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater and served as the historic East Liberty venue’s resident company for three years. Two years later, Ms. Pearl opened with her husband, sound designer Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl, PearlArts Studios, their dance, art and sound space in Point Breeze. Other recent endeavors include the PearlDiving Movement Residency series and the pearlPRESENTS dance festival, a seven-day event launched in 2019.
Ms. Pearl believes she’s the first African American woman to choreograph a work for PBT. She says she was inspired by The New York Times’ 1619 project, named for the date when the first African slaves were brought to North America.
“It talked about the Middle Passage ... and some of the slaves who decided not to take the voyage and jumped ship. I started going over in my head alternative storylines, magical storylines.”
What she came up with is “SKIN + saltwater,” which blends contemporary movement with PBT’s classical finesse. Her husband created the soundscape for the piece, which offers dancers an opportunity to stretch their artistry.
“It challenges us to broaden our ranges and it challenges our classical technique, as well,” says soloist JoAnna Schmidt, who will dance in three of the program’s four works. “It’s good to practice expanding and pushing beyond your limits. It’s also nice to do things that are a little bit more abstract than a clear storyline . ... You can bring a little bit more of yourself into it.”
Ms. Pearl says the residency has given her an up -close look at how a larger dance company operates. She has taken part in PBT diversity committee meetings, she says, and hopes to find other ways to collaborate after her residency ends.
The fact that so few black women have choreographed works for professional ballet companies points to a problem, Ms. Pearl says.
“It’s 2020. It’s a little too little a little too late because you missed out on all those other ones who were a thousand times better than me, or could have been,” she says. “All of us are missing out on resources and brain power and technologies that we’re not going to get if the resources aren’t there to give [black] people the opportunities to be the best and the most they can. That’s the big picture of it.”
In addition to Ms. Pearl’s premiere, dancers will stage Mr. Abraham’s “The Quiet Dance,” set to Bill Evans’ arrangement of Leonard Bernstein’s “Some Other Time.” Mr. Abraham heads his own New York City-based dance company and is a past MacArthur Fellow.
A first for the company will be Mr. Duato’s “Duende” set to Claude Debussy music, which Mr. Orr has wanted to present since he came to PBT more than two decades ago. PBT also will revive for the first time since 2005 Mr. Rhoden’s “Simon Said” to songs by Paul Simon.
“They’re all very, very different from each other. It’s a big challenge,” Mr. Orr says.