Pittsburgh Ballet's 2022-23 season to be 'fresh, bold and challenging'

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s Artistic Director Susan Jaffe has issued a warning for the company’s 2022-23 season:

“The audience is going to see a different side of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre — it’s not all fairies and tutus.”

While the ballet will present classical favorites, audience members and the dancers themselves also will be challenged by other “very athletic and bold” contemporary works.

“As I considered this season, I chose fresh, bold and challenging works to excite audiences with the art of ballet,” Jaffe said. “Having a mixture of the master works, the classics, dramatic work and innovation is how we keep the art form moving forward.”

One thing Jaffe said she finds exciting in modern ballet is the way it has built on its past as it moves forward.

“The choreographers of today have really made that marriage of ballet to contemporary dance work,” she said. “That’s where a lot of the creativity and innovation has developed and is continuing to develop — physically, rhythmically and even in storytelling.”

The upcoming season includes:

• Storytelling in Motion, Oct. 6-9 at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in downtown Pittsburgh — A mixed repertory showcase of contemporary ballet with innovative, thought-provoking and athletic performances.

“These are abstract works that still have an element of storytelling in them, particularly Helen Pickett’s ‘The Exiled,’” Jaffe said. “It’s about two people called The Reckoners who decide the future of three people who come into their space. There’s the paradox of who is good and who is evil. It’s staged behind a plexiglass box, like you’re peering into someone’s living room, and the work also has the dancers speaking.”

The program also includes Nacho Duato’s “Duende,” with angled, architectural movement to the music of Debussy; and Goyo Montero’s “Alrededor No Hay Nada,” set to nine poems and including spoken word.

“(The August Wilson Center) was created for innovation, so my idea to bring more gritty, innovative works to it aligns itself to the feeling of that theater,” Jaffe said.

• The Nutcracker, Dec. 9-28 at the Benedum Center — Production created by former PBT Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr, a long-running holiday tradition with a distinctly Pittsburgh flavor.

The production features five fanciful scenes, more than 150 unique costumes and the classic Tchaikovsky score. Performances include a Dec. 9 student matinee and a sensory-friendly performance adapted for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder or sensory sensitivities on Dec. 16.

• Dracula, Feb. 10-12, 2023, at the Benedum Center — Created by Michael Pink, artistic director of the Milwaukee Ballet.

“It’s played internationally, and it sells out wherever it goes,” Jaffe said. “It’s the Bram Stoker novel, with no fluff, no dumbing-down, and it’s scary.It’s like a dance play, telling the story through movement and mime.”

“Dracula” is recommended for patrons age 14 and older.

• The Masters Program, April 14-16, 2023, at the Benedum Center — Mixing pure classical dancing with groundbreaking, contemporary choreography, with live music from the PBT Orchestra. The program includes Tony-award-winning Christopher Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia,” Jorma Elo’s “1st Flash” and George Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations.”

“Wheeldon is one of the biggest names in the ballet world. ‘Polyphonia’ is a departure from the classical with a deep classical base, and almost atonal music,” Jaffe said. “‘1st Flash’ is steeped in contemporary work — it’s very ballet from the waist down and very contemporary from the waist up, extremely exacting and fast, dynamic and physical.

“The Balanchine is one of the most difficult classical ballets in the world,” she added. “If our dancers can get through this evening, they can get through anything.”

• The Sleeping Beauty, May 19-21, 2023, at the Benedum Center — A modernized production of the fairy tale, with magnificent sets, dazzling costumes and an iconic Tchaikovsky score performed by PBT Orchestra.

“It’s classical ballet at its best, a gorgeous fairy tale with extremely hard variations, and very family friendly,” Jaffe said.

It’s part of an artist’s responsibility to help audiences see things in new ways, said Jaffe, now in her second full season with PBT.

“We want to reinvent from the foundation of the past. I believe it is my responsibility to bring audiences forward into a new dimension of dance,” she said. “I believe that offering our audiences extraordinary choreography and good dancing will bring them back to the theater time and again, and this season’s shows offer an exceptional mixture of classical, provocative and innovative performances.”

Tickets to each performance are available now for PBT subscribers. Single tickets, starting at $29, go on sale Aug. 31.

For information, visit pbt.org.