Loving The Peaches!
Another reason for ballet optimism
The audience members came in tutus and tiaras, chattering excitedly with family and friends as they filled the seats in Seattle’s cavernous McCaw Hall. This big group of kids and parents, grandparents and people like me, single adults, filled McCaw’s main floor and trickled into the theater’s upper tiers.
The event wasn’t The Nutcracker, although that’s always a big draw. These people had arrived on a sunny Saturday morning for the world premiere of acclaimed choreographer Jessica Lang’s new work Momotaro, the Peach Boy, an adaptation of a Japanese folk tale about a boy who first appears encased in a giant peach floating downriver. A childless couple adopts and raises the boy. Once grown, Momotaro sets out for a place called Ogre Island, where he and his valiant friends vanquish an ogre gang who’ve looted food and treasures from Momotaro’s village.
The ballet was presented by Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) as part of an annual series of family-friendly matinee productions. It’s not Lang’s first ballet for children (that was a 27-minute adaptation of Babar the Little Elephant) but she says it’s her longest at one hour, and certainly the most elaborate. It features dancers from the PNB school, including (in the premiere performance) a fabulous Christopher Karhunen, a student in PNB’s Professional Division program, as Momotaro and Max Howard as Boss Ogre.
There’s live taiko drumming by students from The School of TAIKO plus traditional Japanese music from Japan Creative Arts. The creative team includes lighting design by PNB’s Reed Nakayama, Meleta Buckstaff’s costume design, (including the array of adorable little peaches), and scenic design from PNB soloist Yuki Takahashi with scenic coordinator Yuki Izumihara. This is all packed into the hour-long performance narrated by actor Brad Lo Walker.
Whew!
I didn’t go to the premiere intending to write about Momotaro, but I cheerfully admit to being swept away by the simple yet lovely story, the live music and fantastic dancing that includes everything from the aforementioned Momotaro and his ogre foe, as well as three young ballerinas, the Star Fairies, twirling among a larger ensemble that includes Forest and Water Fairies. Plus there’s Momotaro’s pals: the dog, the monkey and a pheasant who help save the day on Ogre Island. Who doesn’t crave a story where goodness and kindness beat the forces of venality?
Lang made Momotaro with support and assistance from her husband and artistic collaborator Kanji Segawa, partly as a tribute to his Japanese heritage. One of the things that PNB artistic director Peter Boal has stressed during his tenure is the expansion of whose stories the ballet company tells. I don’t remember seeing taiko drums at a PNB show before this ballet, and we’re all the richer for their inclusion this year.
Speaking of inclusion, on Saturday, March 28 PNB presents two more Momotaro performances, as well as a free community event that starts at 11:30.
Lang is in the midst of a three-year contract as PNB’s resident choreographer. We’ve seen a range of her ballets here, even before her official residency, and this artistic season will end with an All-Lang program that will include the Georgia O’Keeffe inspired Her Door to the Sky, plus Lang’s pandemic era Ghost Variations and a new-to-PNB ballet called ZigZag. That program runs the end of May through June 6.
Your preschoolers may not be ready for an All-Lang bill… yet. But Momotaro/The Peach Boy is sure to start them on the ballet journey.