PBT School to Showcase Talents of Nearly 200 Students in Spring Performances

Ranging from budding ballet dancers to polished pre-professionals, nearly 200 students of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School will take the stage this month for two year-end performances featuring excerpts from the mesmerizing classic, “La Bayadère”, and original new works created by PBT School students. PBT School presents its annual Pre-Professional Showcase May 16-18, at Point Park University’s George Rowland White Performance Studio, followed by Spring Performance 2014 at 7 p.m. Friday, May 23, at the Byham Theater.

Both productions will feature a variety of works, including the famous “Kingdom of the Shades” scene and other excerpts from Marius Petipa’s entrancing classic “La Bayadère.” In a preview of PBT’s 45^th Anniversary Season lineup, students will perform scenes from and interpretations ofall three acts of the large-scale ballet, which will receive its full-length Pittsburgh premiere in April 2015.In another connection to PBT’s professional company, PBT School students also had the opportunity to work with choreographer Julia Adam, a former San Francisco Ballet principal dancer and one of the featured choreographers in PBT’s mixed repertory program, “3×3,” this past March at the August Wilson Center. PBT School Pre-Professional students will be performing her contemporary ballet “Medium is the Message” for the Pre-Professional Showcases and Spring Performance. Originally choreographed in 1993 for a San Francisco Ballet Choreographic Workshop, “Medium is the Message” marked the first of many ballets that Adam would go on to create for ballet companies across the country. Set to blues music, the humorous piece – revolving around three dancers and a couch – highlights Adam’s uncanny wit, humor and unique sense of movement.

The productions also will showcase the artistic synergy of PBT School Pre-professional students Caroline MacDonald, 20, and Jack Hawn, 16, who collaborated to create two original works on the program. The program will reprise the duo’s inventive contemporary ballet, “Dovetail,” which premiered during PBT School’s Pittsburgh First Night performance in December, as well as a new work created specifically for the spring performances. Both works are choreographed by MacDonald, a PBT School Graduate student, and set to original piano works composed by Hawn, a full-time PBT School high school student.

Pre-Professional Showcase 2014

The Pre-Professional Showcase features a weekend of performances by students of the PBT School Pre-Professional Division in the intimate setting of Point Park University’s George Rowland White Performance Studio, 201 Wood St. (Lawrence Hall).Tickets are available for $22 each, and can be purchased by calling 412-281-0360, or by visiting pbt.org/performances.

Performance Times:

·         Friday, May 16, at 7 p.m.

·         Saturday, May 17, at 2 p.m. & 7 p.m.

·         Sunday, May 18, at 2 p.m.

Spring Performance 2014

The Spring Performance will feature nearly 200 students, ages 8 to 22, of PBT School’s Student and Pre-Professional Divisions onstage at the Byham Theater. Tickets range from $21.25 to $29.25, and can be purchased by calling 412-456-6666 or visiting pbt.org/performances.

Performance Time:

·         Friday, May 23, at 7 p.m.

About Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School

As the official training institution of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, PBT School provides a diverse dance curriculum to more than 900 students across its Children’s, Student, Pre-Professional and Adult Open Divisions under the direction of PBT Artistic Director Terrence S. Orr and School Co-Directors Marjorie Grundvig and Dennis Marshall.  Ranging from pre-ballet to Pre-Professional, PBT School fosters the expression, discipline and joy of ballet at every level and cultivates the next generation of professional dancers. Strengthened by daily exposure to PBT’s professional company of dancers, PBT School students experience training that extends from the studio to main-stage performance opportunities in annual student productions and select PBT productions at the Benedum Center.