Artistic Director’s Notebook: Sweet Fields, The Calling, The Seasons’ Canon

What goes into programming a season? There are more factors to list than my word count allows. Putting together programs for PNB over the past two decades has been a favorite part of the job. I’m also grateful to have input from others and most recently from Associate Artistic Director Kiyon Ross.
I start with works I admire – well-crafted, musical, clear point of view – and ones I believe audiences will find intriguing. I like a mixture of past hits and unknowns. I welcome your feedback at post-performance Meet the Artist sessions.

I consider the current roster, aiming to provide roles that will foster growth for the company, students, musicians, and others. I look at licenses (every ballet at PNB has a license for between one and five years). If a work is performed twice during a license period, there is less to spend, more to earn, and the pleasure of revisiting a favorite. Lia Chiarelli, our Chief Marketing & Advancement Officer, is one of the first people I consult. We create the best estimate for what we think a program will earn and how the mix of programs will help create a balanced budget. Lia’s research shows PNB’s most popular reps include works by Twyla Tharp or Crystal Pite.

I consider the workload for stage crew, number of floors, costumes, wigs, dressers, pointe shoes, and more. I will never forget my first season when music director Stewart Kershaw said, “It’s clear someone has forgotten the trombones.” I confess, I had, and I haven’t since.

We also look at representation – who’s being given opportunities and who’s not. This lens is used for choreographers, composers, and designers. Traditionally, ballet has been dominated by male-identifying dancemakers. PNB is doing its part to shift this imbalance and offer multiple opportunities each season to talented and deserving creators. Did you know our school offers a 38-week course in choreography for young women? You’re about to see a program with works by three female-identifying choreographers. They are all familiar names on our stage and in our studios.

These works are all meditations on existence. Each is thoughtful, engaging, and affecting. Twyla Tharp has taken the music of Shaker hymns as her inspiration for Sweet Fields. Norma Kamali’s flowing white costumes transport us to a celestial realm. The sense of community, support, life, and afterlife fills our soul. Twyla offers joy, play, and reverence to the uplifting voices of The Tudor Choir. Jessica Lang, PNB’s new resident choreographer and the creator of The Calling, was in the original cast of Sweet Fields. The Calling was made in a surge of emotion after Jessica received a lost letter from a mentor years after his passing. The letter arrived at a moment when Jessica needed guidance. It seemed to drop from heaven. After reading, through torrents of tears, she grabbed husband Kanji Segawa, a star dancer with Alvin Ailey, and headed into a studio to create The Calling.