Pacific Northwest Ballet debuted their new ballet, “One Thousand Pieces,” Friday, March 15. This piece stretched the lengths of the normal expectations of contemporary ballet pieces and strung together two of the most well-known choreographers in the PNW, Alejandro Cerrudo and Matthew Neenan. This was done by incorporating new concepts that have never been seen before, especially coming from a very classical studio like PNB. This ballet left me wanting to watch it again! I would recommend this ballet to anyone who thinks ballet is boring or does not have a complete storyline.
This performance was split into two parts. The first act was by Neenan and focused on the heartbreaking feeling of abandonment. The ballet began with only two people on stage, then slowly, many people followed in until the whole McCaw Hall stage was filled with dancers in deep magenta costumes. At the beginning of the act, the theme of the story was not shown at all. It was not until I read the program that I began to understand. The only thing I would change about this act would be the clarity of the theme.
Act two was by Cerrudo. His inspiration for his piece was the idea of reflections and mirrors. He explored the idea of perspective of people in the same position but with different viewpoints. This act was my favorite out of the whole ballet. The act was split into three segments. The first started with mirrors being put on stage, the dancers hid behind the mirrors when it opened and then appeared slowly by sliding the mirrors across the stage. After they had the segment where a dancer came out on stage and shared a passage about love and how it is interpreted differently by bystanders. Something interesting about this part was the person speaking was hanging from the ceiling. The next segment is the reason why act two was my favorite. When the curtain opened there was blue smoke and steam on the end of the stage and water on the stage, this had never been done before in a ballet and it was so incredible to watch. When dancers went behind the steam, they completely disappeared.
Act three was not my favorite due to the use of the mirrors. The dancers turned the mirrors, which is an interesting concept, but how it was presented was not positive. The light from the spotlights reflected off the mirrors which hit the audience in the light. This was very distracting, and it was hard for me to concentrate on the dancers. Overall, I would recommend this ballet to people who are not open to the idea of ballet or think ballets are too long.
