So you thought that the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre season was done. But there’s a juicy postscript on tap for this weekend. Not strictly PBT, but with distinct support from company-associated dancers.
It has a clever title, CRE8DANCE (get it, like a license plate on a car?). And it’s the brainchild of former PBT soloist William Moore. Evidently a love of choreography has been brewing inside Moore for quite a while. As he puts it, “It’s something that I thought about in theory many, many years ago. Okay, we’ve got all these choreographers and they’re all around the world. Why isn’t there one place where they all congregate [and] directors can see the work, evaluate the work and pick and choose, sort of like Jacob’s Pillow, where lots of people of influence go to one particular location?”
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of talking with him, Moore has the charming lilt of a British native. He trained at Great Britain’s The Royal Ballet “all the way through.” The school encouraged choreography from the students and, in the second to last year, he won a prize. The judges were famed contemporary choreographer Wayne MacGregor and former RB principal Monica Mason.
Not too shabby! And the process, according to Moore, was “fun,” while MacGregor commented that he “loved the movement quality.”
Subsequently Moore joined the National Ballet of Estonia, where the company members also were encouraged to choreograph. Again, he entered and won a prize. And while Moore is not a fan of the word competition in respect to dancers, he admits “this is a competition. I just want to give opportunities to dancers in so many different places. This is a general idea of what this choreographer has to offer in a narrative. It has a general overview of their choreographic style. And that can start a conversation between a judge or a director or an audience member.”
The award-winning panel of judges includes Susan Stowe, chair, department of concert dance, ballet and modern at Point Park University; Alan Obuzor, founder and artistic director of Texture Contemporary Ballet; Jesse Factor, former performer with Martha Graham Company and faculty member at PPU; Julia Erickson, former principal dancer at PBT and now a faculty member at PPU in addition to a repetiteur/entrepreneur/choreographer; and Chelsea Sebes, director/choreographer at Evolve Dance Complex.
The inaugural competition will feature 10 choreographers who create 8 pieces. They submitted an application and video of their work and Moore curated them. All in all, there were 30 proposals.
There were some restrictions: choreographers could not create a solo and the participants, who not only will come from Pittsburgh, but will travel from New York and Rhode Island, could not choreograph on themselves. “I looked at what I would want,” Moore explains. “I like the idea of taking a piece, go to a location, perform the work, get lots of feedback, get lots of exposure. I love the idea of fellowships, but it wasn’t quick and snappy. [Here] you get the quick fire exposure.
Pittsburgh Dance Council was the first local group to feature dance makers. Called Choreographers Continuum, there were 16 editions that nurtured the local dance scene until it matured beyond the PDC format and into a vibrant, constantly growing community. And PBT had its own showcase that featured a blend of classical and original pieces, virtually all by the company itself, called the Dancers’ Trust.
A surprising number of PBT dancers are supporting this latest project, some to dance onstage, others actively helping behind the scenes, like retiring soloist Corey Bourbonnierre, corps member Kurtis Sprowls, newly-appointed corps member Emory Amoky and principal Hannah Carter.
CRE8DANCE will offer local talent like Joanna Schmidt (PBT) and Marc Spaulding (Point Park University), then reach outside Pittsburgh borders for Ballet Met’s Cooper Verona, New York artists Jillian Sinko, Sara Guo, Riley Haley, Francis Lawrence and Sky Pasqual and Newport Contemporary Ballet’s Deanna Gerde and Ben Rabe. There will be a total of $10,000 in prizes, with a top award of $5,000.
But there is a delicious twist — an audience prize of $1,500. (Yes, you too can play a part in the outcome!) Members of the audience can access a QR code from their cell phones and vote for their favorite piece, a novel and potentially exciting departure for a format like this.
“Nobody is wrong, because dance is so subjective,” Moore says. He wants to preface the evening with a statement. “I want this to be a healthy competition, to celebrate choreography, so that it will hand engage the audience early on.” He knows that “everybody is giving heart and soul to every moment. I’d like the audience to see the passion behind it all.”
For ticket information and CRE8 website: https://playhouse.culturaldistrict.org/production/101269/cre8dance-choreographic-competition
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