From Cosmology to Cacti, PNB’s Premieres Expand the Imagination

Cover image: Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancers Noelani Pantastico and Lucien Postlewaite in Alejandro Cerrudo’s ‘Silent Ghost’ (Photo © Angela Sterling)

It’s exciting to see a homegrown talent take off. Homegrown, in that Kyle Davies has been a Pacific Northwest Ballet dancer since 2009, and while he has been developing his choreographic ideas for some years, Friday night saw a work of his included on a season mainstage program for the first time.

Davies’ piece, “A Dark and Lonely Space” opened the All Premiere repertory program (performances through November 11) followed by two more works of considerable interest, new to PNB, and all three quite different from each other: Alejandro Cerrudo’s “Silent Ghost,” and Alexander Ekman’s “Cacti.”

Davies’ remarkable vision included the music, by Michael Giacchino with orchestra (conducted by Emil de Cou), a soloist (Christina Siemens), and a chorus up in the high side boxes; the set, intimations of huge trees in a shadowy background and a figure, the solo singer, high up at the back lit from above with apparently a skirt made of light descending like a crinoline to the ground; the lighting, dark and atmospheric with pools on dancers; and the costumes, these designed in a debut by another PNB dancer, Elizabeth Murphy.

Davies’ idea was loosely modeled on the parallels between the beginnings of the planetary system and human behavior, but anything more concrete than that was left to the audience’s imagination. His large cast included twelve chorus dancers, three couples, four women in long clocks with beaked hoods whose influence might be benign, or not, and one presumably baby planet. This last was danced brilliantly by Leta Biasucci in such a way that one could see the unfolding of a new being? planet? from a weak-limbed, unsteady body in a brief light-colored tunic (everyone else was in mostly black) struggling to stand (like a newborn calf) to gradually finding strength but also bewilderment and uncertainty as to who and what she was.

Davies‘ concept for all his dancers mostly used conventional steps and movement in less conventional ways but they fitted the music admirably. The whole was consistently arresting to watch and well performed but the long piece also seemed to have several places where it could appropriately have been ended, notably when the baby planet? element? seemed to become two. Davies’ flood of inspirations could serve for several pieces, not necessarily a single one.

Cerrudo’s much shorter “Silent Ghost” used recorded music by several contemporary composers. Both music and dancers had a more angular take, the latter were at times in a row looking like people on a hilltop communicating by semaphore with sharp identical arm movements. Two solo couples came out of this line each with notable pas de deux. Lucien Postlewaite and Noelani Pantastico always dance as one, and some of her movements required enormous control and strength as when lying backwards on his bent back, she raised her legs to the sky, with grace and seeming ease. Elizabeth Murphy, changing hats from designer to dancer, and Dylan Wald were also worth watching. Wald, still a corps member is growing in his capacities and one to observe.

The final work, “Cacti,” turned out to be frankly fun. Sixteen dancers each stood on a large tile, like stepping stones, creating designs, moving from one tile to another, moving them or standing them on end and popping out from behind or above.  A string quartet threaded their way between and around the dancers, managing to avoid collisions but playing at the same time, alternating with the orchestra in the pit, led by Doug Fullington. Two more corps dancers, Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan and Christian Poppe, acquitted themselves well dancing together and the whole was always a delight to watch.

The whole program added three more works to the company’s repertoire, each requiring more expansion of the dancers’ abilities to move in different ways. PNB already has a reputation for versatility and this can only increase with programs like this.