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AUDIENCE REVIEW: Pacific Northwest Ballet in "Her Door to the Sky"

Company:
Pacific Northwest Ballet

Performance Date:
August 24, 2016

Freeform Review:

World Premiere for Pacific Northwest Ballet by Jessica Lang

On the evening of August 24, 2016 at the Ted Shawn Theater at Jacob's Pillow I attended the world premier of Jessica Lang's new work for Pacific Northwest Ballet entitled Her Door to the Sky. It was sublimely magnificent and a joy to watch. As is often the case in Jessica's work it is highly musical, and this work is set to Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony. All the women are in pointe shoes and it is a balletic piece throughout, but the steps and combinations are unique, intriguing and all Jessica's. The piece was inspired by Georgia O'Keefe's Patio Door series of paintings that were painted between 1946 and 1956. The backdrop evokes patio doors and the costumes by Bradon McDonald were amazing.

PNB chose this piece for the evening's closer, which right off provided an indication of how highly it was apprised by PNB's Artistic Director Peter Boal. The house was completely sold out and the entire audience rose in a long and rousing standing ovation, which was the only one of the evening. PNB will perform this work in the Seattle home in March 2017.

After the performance I bumped into four dancers from Jessica Lang Dance, which is Jessica's New York-based company. As a sign of the devotion of JLD's dancers to Jessica and her work, these four dancers took the time and personally rented a car to drive from the city to the PIllow (3.5 hours) just for this performance.

Photo: Christopher Duggan.