You might call it a perfect storm of dance this year, a wildly meaningful season to celebrate. Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Pittsburgh Dance Council (50). Attack Theatre (25). The Glue Factory and STAYCEE PEARL dance company & Soy Sos (10). And to think I’ve seen just about all of it, this birth and burgeoning of Pittsburgh dance. Here are some of the dates and insights into what will unfold before our very eyes:
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. PBT has opted for a rather safe 50th as things stand right now. After all, major companies like Boston Ballet and Pennsylvania Ballet spent part of their 50th anniversaries with a run at Kennedy Center. That being said, 27 American companies have appeared there one or more times. Not so with Pittsburgh. So the season will open with at the Benedum Center with the introspective Giselle, rather than a celebratory program, followed by the annual Nutcracker (Benedum, Dec. 6-29) and Lew Christensen’s two-dimensional Beauty and the Beast (Feb. 14-23). Things pick up at in a collaboration at the August Wilson Center (Mar. 20-29) when the company presents Here + Now. The mixed repertoire program features MacArthur Genius Award winner and Pittsburgh native Kyle Abraham’s The Quiet Dance, although Point Park University has already presented two of his works and PBT should have pressed for an Abraham premiere. After all, you only celebrate 50 once. Talented local choreographer Staycee Pearl, however, will be PBT’s first resident choreographer in years, giving the company the movement stretch that it needs and culminating in her own world premiere. Dwight Rhoden’s Simon Said, set to music by Paul Simon, will complete the program. The season could conclude on a bright note (Benedum, Apr. 17-19), honoring former artistic director Patricia Wilde’s Balanchine legacy with a highly challenging program featuring Theme and Variations, Allegro Brillante, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and the formidable Diamonds. However, it is current artistic director Terrence Orr who is retiring at the conclusion of the season. So it will be up to the dancers to be the saving grace, presumably dancing for the new candidates during the course of the season and getting the most out of the choreographic material for audiences.. www.pbt.org.
Pittsburgh Dance Council. Director of Dance Programming Randal Miller has sought balance and adventure for PDC’s 50th anniversary and even scored a coup. It will open with a co-anniversary event with Momix, which has a piece that celebrates just that (30 years for Momix). The company will perform at the Dance in the District Gala Fri. Sept 20 and then officially open PDC’s 5oth season (Byham Theater, Sept. 21). The crown jewel will be the uncommonly popular Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which will close out the season at the Benedum May 5, its first time here in years, and PDC’s first Benedum performance in recent memory. He will also take the series to different locations Downtown. Expect San Francisco’s ODC/Dance Oct. 6-9 in a special immersive experience at Trinity Cathedral Downtown with the spiritually-inspired Path of Miracles and accompanied by our own Mendelssohn Choir. Tapper Sara Reich (SYTYCD, Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch) will bring a live postmodern musical group to back her at the Greer Cabaret Theater Jan. 16-18. Back at the Byham, you haven’t re-e-eally experienced flamenco unless you felt the raw energy of its duende (passion), this time with an overt sexuality from Rocio Molina (Mar. 25). And the coup? The Cuban company, Malpaso, will perform Ohad Naharin’s Tabula Rasa, hands down the best premiere Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has ever produced and still performed all over the world. Yes, PBT, but presented by PDC and Malpaso Feb. 22 at the Byham. http://www.trustarts.org.
Attack Theatre. The name says it all — this company doesn’t sit back on its laurels, always poking and prodding, working the room and the community at large with an energy that is always palpable. So it will be bursting at the seams for its 25th. (Only Dance Alloy Theater made it further, to 30.) With this achievement in their collective pockets, the Attackers have assembled much historic and connective tissue, beginning with, yes, Some Assembly Required, the company’s signature interactive piece that has stood the test of time. And this time it was back to the Andy Warhol Museum for the latest editions of Some Assembly (Sept. 13-14), the place where founders Michele de la Reza and Peter Kope first met. Then get down, as we all like to do, at The Get Down in Lawrenceville’s Spirit Hall (Nov. 1). The Kitchen Sink won Attack the number one spot on my Top Ten List in 2006 (New Hazlett Theater, Nov. 15-17), but the number one news is the return of The Dirty Ball ONLY for this anniversary year (Apr. 25, TBA as always). Then AT will wrap things up by going WAY back to its origins in the East End, when it will take over the Yingling Mansion in Wilkinsburg and fill it with site-specific paraphernalia for Unseen/Known (May 21-June 6), coming full circle as only Attack Theater can do. www.attacktheatre.com.
The Glue Factory. Beth Corning of Corningworks still continues to redefine dance after 40…way after 40 in some cases, as her brand of dance theater will stir our imaginations during her 10th anniversary. She opens with THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT — by 6 women of a certain age. (Of course.) Charlotte Adams. Li Chiao-Ping. Simone Ferro. Heidi Latsky. Endalyn Taylor. All with something to say in a solo format. (New Hazlett, Oct. 23-27) Still hungry for more? Go to the Mad Mex Fajita Fundraiser Mar. 3 at the Shadyside Mad Mex! Then savor REFUGE (working title) Mar. 18-29 @Carrick25, a new performance venue. Created in collaboration with DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS, this multidisciplinary production in a new space will come face-to-face with the all-consuming topic of the refugee, “a work not so much about ‘them’ but rather…how this could be us… www.corningworks.org.
STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos. The creative wife and husband duo (choreographer Staycee Pearl and dj/composer Herman Pearl) have been part and parcel of the Pittsburgh dance fabric for ten years. They will spread their wings this season, beginning with Premio Internazionale di Danza San Nicola in December. February finds them sharing a bill with Sidra Bell Dance New York at GK Arts Center in NYC. Along the way, watch for residency performances and pop up engagements at their studio in the Mine Factory Building in the East End (although they hint at expanding to Braddock in the near future). Meanwhile, as noted above, Staycee will be busy as Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s resident choreographer, culminating in a world premiere (August Wilson Center, Mar. 20-29). And the season will conclude with a 10th anniversary bash.
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