A Homecoming of Sorts

The new year in dance gets an invigorating jump-start with a week of performances by Pacific Northwest Ballet, one of the nation’s leading ballet companies. The Seattle-based troupe has a vast repertory, including one of the largest selections of Balanchine ballets found outside New York City Ballet, as well as many of the ever-popular full-length classics. But for this week at the Joyce, PNB is bringing a decidedly up-to-the-minute program that is distinctly its own. All four works were created in the past five years—a top-drawer selection by significant choreographers, both proven and emerging.

For local audiences, the chance to see this top-tier company comes with an additional attraction—a sentimental homecoming of sorts. Since 2005, PNB has been led by Peter Boal, who for more than two decades was one of New York City Ballet’s leading male dancers. After a festive NYCB retirement performance, Boal segued into his new job as elegantly as he performed numerous demanding roles. Without radically altering PNB’s profile, he has enhanced its already impressive collection of Balanchine works, fortified its Jerome Robbins repertory and cultivated ongoing relationships with important choreographers whose work he values.

It was quite a coup for Boal to get Twyla Tharp to create a pair of contrasting works for the company in 2008. She spent two months in Seattle creating these dances, which the company performed on an all-Tharp bill that included her evergreen Nine Sinatra Songs. PNB’s Joyce program will open with one of those premieres: Opus 111, a work for six couples set to a Brahms string quintet.

“The relationship between Twyla and me is a long one, and a very positive one—about 20 years of working with her,” Boal said recently by phone from his Seattle office. “But it was important for PNB to build trust with Twyla, so we did that through performing several older dances. Then we were at a point where we could comfortably request a commission.

“Twyla was amazing—she was out here for eight weeks; it was really a residency. She did a public lecture-demonstration and more than 1,000 people showed up. She really, in a very collaborative way, guided people and worked with them to get the best results. So we had a wonderful experience with Twyla.”

Benjamin Millepied, Boal’s colleague at NYCB—where he represents the next generation of leading male dancers—is one of the busiest ballet choreographers of the moment. He made ballets for both NYCB and American Ballet Theatre during 2009. As part of his prolific recent output, in late 2008 he created 3 Movements, a large ensemble work to a Steve Reich score for PNB, and that work closes the Joyce program. The Joyce Theater co-commissioned this work as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations.

Boal has a personal connection with the Joyce: on several occasions he performed programs of intriguing new choreography there—once with a pick-up ensemble, and once an evening of solos. These occasions allowed him to venture into less classical, more experimental repertory. “I feel an allegiance to the Joyce. That was a piece of my identity, at that theater. I’m excited to come back,” he said.

His 2004 Joyce program included Mopey, an intriguing, introspective new solo by a young German choreographer, Marco Goecke, whose work Boal had discovered via the New York Choreographic Institute. Juxtaposing music by C.P.E. Bach and the ’80s rock band The Cramps, Mopey has now entered the PNB repertory, staged by Sean Suozzi (its original interpreter), and will return to the Joyce next week. Also on the program is Fur Alina, a delicate, elegiac duet by former NYCB soloist Edwaard Liang, whose own choreographic career has been developing steadily, with works he created for Morphoses and other companies.

PNB’s audiences welcome the adventurous, high-caliber mixed programs Boal offers, even while mainstays such as Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet are being offered this season.

“I’ve certainly invested in mixed bills, trying to broaden my audience’s education about a specific choreographer’s body of work,” Boal said. “I hesitate to ever have just one piece by a choreographer. I like to acquire four or five ballets, if possible, so that you can really get a broad overview of what a choreographer’s body of work is. The audiences here have been very progressive, well-educated, hungry for new works, accepting of risks.”

Now in his fifth season as artistic director, Boal sounds proud, as well as pragmatic, when discussing PNB. The economy and ticket-sales figures necessarily occupy his mind as much as artistic choices, as he speaks of the company’s many assets: “I found this amazing group of dancers (many of whom, much to my surprise, I had trained when I taught at the School of American Ballet), and a phenomenal, across-the-boards foundation.”

Careful consideration went into his first chance to present his company in the city he long called home.

“It’s very hard to pick repertory for touring,” he said. “But for this one—I knew that New York is unquestionably interested in these choreographers.”

>Pacific Northwest Ballet Jan. 5 to 10, Joyce Theater, 175 8th Ave. (at W. 19th St.), 212-242-0800; $10-59.