Dance Notes: PBT in D.C., Emily at the Lake, A "Secret"

PBT PREPARES FOR HOLOCAUST BALLET. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre will fly to Washington D.C. and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum August 25 in preparation for the local premiere of Stephen Mills’ “Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project” in November. The dancers will also view “Genocide,” the 1982 Academy Award winner for best documentary, which was produced by Simon Wiesenthal Center and features narration by Elizabeth Taylor and Orson Wells. The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh will present a talk by Holocaust survivor Sam Weinreb.
CHAUTAUQUA MOVES. Upper St. Clair native Emily Kitka took home a fistful of awards from the Chautauqua dance program this past weekend. At the student choreography recital on Friday, the other students voted her Most Admired as a Dancer and the staff voted her the Technical Merit award. Emily’s choreographic effort, “Withstand,” for which her father, Thomas, played the Astor Piazzolla accompaniment on guitar, was given second prize. In addition, the young dancer, who came from the Thomas School in Bethel Park and studies at the School of American Ballet in New York City, was one of the apprentices who performed with North Carolina Dance Theatre in George Balanchine’s “Western Symphony” on Saturday night.
THE [SECRET] SATURDAY. Has it been five years? The Pillow Project will have a special anniversary concert Dec. 12 at The Space Upstairs. Pearlann Porter isn’t keeping it so secret, though. She’s planning on doing new and retrospective work with some original Pillow members like Donna PridGeon, Ben Wegman and DJ Sorta returning for the occasion. More later…