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Less Balanchine: Terry Orr recasts Pittsburgh Ballet.

Article Excerpt
One afternoon last spring, the music of both Felix Mendelssohn and Bruce Springsteen emanated from the studios and mingled in the atrium of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's multi-studio complex in the city's warehouse district.

The rich Mendelssohn melody leads to Studio F, where Christopher Rendall-Jackson, not quite the love-besotted Lysander, kneels in his yellow sweat pants. He kisses the hand of his confused Helena, an expressive Erin Halloran, wearing a blue chiffon practice skirt. Gnest repetiteur Francia Russell, a keeper of the Balanchine flame who is versed in each nuance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, darts toward the posed pair, unconvinced of Rendall-Jackson's ardor. She admonishes him and then demonstrates to Hermia (Kaori Ogasawara) the proper way to gasp at his infidelity.

In an adjacent studio, Canadian choreographer Matjash Mrozewski (see "25 to Watch," January, 2004, page 41)conducts his new ballet while standing atop a metal stool. Wearing sweats and a T-shirt, he gestures excitedly, toots an invisible saxophone along with the Springsteen riff, and stretches forward, rubbing his lower spine. Later he slides to the floor to demonstrate what looks like a pushup combined with an air turn.

At PBT, under the directorship of Terrence S. Orr, Mendelssohn and Springsteen, and Balanchine and Mrozewski coexist. Pittsburgh's repertoire of Balanchine works was cultivated by former artistic director Patricia Wilde, a longtime New York City Ballet principal. Orr is steering his medium-size company along a new avenue.

PBT's thirty sixth season, which from October 28-31 features Ben Stevenson's Dracula, is the first to break its twenty-two year Balanchine tradition....

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