It’s all Stravinsky, all the time — but not what you might expect — at Eugene Ballet’s latest performance

By Randi Bjornstad

Admirers of Igor Stravinksy’s music will have their wishes amply granted on Feb. 11 and 12 as Eugene Ballet presents a triple bill of some of his most esteemed compositions.

One of the offerings is a world premiere of Stravinsky’s Petrushka, in the form of a ballet by choreographed by Suzanne Haag, Eugene Ballet’s resident choreographer and accompanied by Orchestra Next, the first time the company has performed Petrushka to a live orchestra.

The other two elements of the program include Eugene ballet founder Toni Pimble’s choreography for The Rite of Spring and Apollon Musagète as envisioned by Melissa Bobick.

Haag previously “reimagined” Stravinsky’s music with The Firebird in 2019. This time, with Petrushka, she takes on a story peopled by puppets that Stravinsky originally imagined in 1911 for Ballet Russe.

In the original story, there are three puppets: Petrushka, a homely, clumsy little puppet; a pretty ballerina puppet; and a dashing, handsomely exotic puppet. The three puppets are in a booth at a street festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the equivalent of Mardi Gras, and when it is time for them to perform, the puppet maker, who also performs as a magician, taps each puppet with a wand, and they all appear to come to life and begin to dance.

It’s easy to see where this storyline is headed. Petrushka, given his senses, immediately falls in love with the lovely ballerina. But she in turn becomes enchanted by the rich, handsome, mysterious puppet, and the scene is set for jealousy, rage, and destruction.

Petrushka and the stranger end up in a duel, and Petrushka is killed. But his ghost comes back to haunt the puppet maker who made him ugly and cheap and then brought him to such an unhappy life instead of leaving him as a puppet.

In her version, Haag completely reinterprets the story of Petrushka. Her version takes place somewhere perhaps even in the future, described as a “space station trade center,” where artificial intelligence —AI — technology is bought and sold. She reexamines the same emotions of personal identity, love, and what it means to be self-aware, but through a set of characters recast as The Builder, The Warrior, The Companion, and Petrushka.

And instead of the riotous spirit of a raucous, 19th-century street fair, Haag introduces an ultra-, maybe even post-modern set and costuming that is sleek, even stark.

Here’s how Eugene Ballet describes the scene: “Technology plays a near leading role in Haag’s choreography, with large video monitors on stage that reveal details of the characters’ histories plus a virtual reality view as the androids and humans interact. Working with videographer Katherine Frizzell, Haag and Eugene Ballet’s dancers have captured off stage scenes that virtually imagine the characters’ feelings in the moment.”

These performances will be augmented by additional activities in the Hult Center lobby, described by Eugene Ballet as “a virtual reality gaming set-up provided by MultiVRse in the Hult Center lobby, as well as a silent disco party led by local freestyle animation dancer Carlos ‘Retro’ Rasmussen.”

Eugene Ballet last performed Petrushka in 1987, to original choreography by Pimble, after it had its debut in 1984, with Pimble in the role of the ballerina — in Haag’s version The Companion, and Eugene Ballet co-founder Riley Grannan in the role of the character now called The Builder.

Likewise, the other pieces on the program have history, but not recent, with Eugene Ballet. Pimble’s choreography for The Rite of Spring, had its premiere in 2002 but hasn’t been performed in Eugene since 2012.

Bobick was commissioned by Eugene  in the 2011-12 season to choreograph Apollon Musagète for four dancers. She is now assistant professor and director of the Utah Ballet Choreographic Institute at the University of Utah School of Dance.

It’s an all-Stravinsky lineup at Eugene Ballet

When: 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 11 and 2 p.m. on Feb. 12

Where: Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, One Eugene Center (Seventh and Willamette streets), Eugene

Tickets: $25-$60; $15 for youth and college tickets with valid student ID, available at the Hult Center box office, 541-682-5000, or online at eugeneballet.org or hultcenter.org

Note: Because of the mature themes presented in all three ballets, Eugene Ballet recommends that viewers be age 11 years and up for these performances.