Baker’s Dozen

In this company premiere, Baker’s Dozen is the first full work by Twyla Tharp to enter the OBT repertory. The movement expresses harmony, playfulness and easy virtuosity. An American original, Twyla Tharp has changed the face of dance with disarming boldness. She is, as the San Francisco Chronicle noted, deadly serious as an artist and distinctive as a dancemaker. Tharp has created a monumental legacy. Virtually all dance techniques are mutually compatible in Tharp’s universe, where the classical and the unclassifiable tend to smile side by side.

James Canfield World Premiere

OBT is thrilled to announce that James Canfield, OBT’s founding artistic director, will return to choreograph a new work for its World Premiere performance. James Canfield choreographed more than thirty ballets as the founding Artistic Director of OBT and established the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre in order to provide the best classical training to dancers throughout the Northwest. Canfield put OBT on the map thirty years ago and he returns to celebrate Oregon Ballet Theatre’s anniversary season by again adding to the repertory with a new work.

Rodeo

Composed by Aaron Copland, Rodeo is Agnes de Mille’s most beloved and most frequently presented ballet; it is the ballet that launched her career. De Mille danced the leading role and received twenty-two curtain calls with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera House on October 16, 1942. The ballet was the beginning of her success as a choreographer of worldwide reputation and was the first ballet to feature American tap dancing and indigenous folk dance, along with classical ballet.

The ballet displays bravura dancing in a unique style derived from horseback riding and cattle roping. The work is robust, tender, and full of optimism. Rodeo is a celebration of the pluck and spirit of the American character.