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QuickTake:
For Toni Pimble’s final production as the artistic director of Eugene Ballet, the company performs two of her most beloved ballets — “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Silk and Steel.” The double bill is May 17 and 18 at the Hult Center.
Toni Pimble, the longtime artistic director of Eugene Ballet, has choreographed more than 60 works over the last half-century or so.
Not all of them trigger the fondest memories.
“I’ve done a lot of ballets,” she said, “and there’s ones that I look at and go, ‘Hope we never do that again.’”
But the two works scheduled for this weekend’s Eugene Ballet performance — the last one for Pimble, who’s retiring after 46 years of leadership at the company — definitely don’t fall into that category.
The double bill features Pimble’s 1985 take on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a piece so well-liked that the company stages it every five years or so. The production also features “Silk and Steel,” a 1999 work noted for its vibrant colors and athleticism — not to mention long flowing silk ribbons and huge umbrellas, among other visual splendors.
The two works are among Pimble’s favorite creations. But even a favorite piece sometimes needs a touchup, so Pimble and company are giving “Midsummer” a visual overhaul — while keeping most of the ballet’s choreography intact.
“It’s a piece I like very much, but I also knew that it needed a lot of new production values,” she said.
For example, even though the 1985 costumes have held up reasonably well, “if the dancers (today) put them on, (the costumes) would be older than the dancers. … It was time for a new look.”
So Pimble designed new costumes for the fairies and the rustics in the ballet, working with Axel Dāzee, Eugene Ballet’s costume designer and costume shop manager. (Dāzee created additional new costumes for the ballet.)
And the production, which focuses on the forest portions of Shakespeare’s play, also features new scenic projections by Eugene-based artist Satoko Motouji. (Pimble’s husband, architect Paul Dustrud, chipped in as well, creating technical drawings.)
For Pimble, a native of England, part of the appeal of tackling “Midsummer Night’s Dream” was obvious: “It’s my heritage, isn’t it? Shakespeare?”
Also, the play features fairies: “Obviously, for ballet, they work really well,” she said.
Pimble also loves the incidental music the German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote for the play, but Mendelssohn didn’t write quite enough music to cover an hour-long ballet. So she filled out the music with selections by Rossini and Bottesini. Orchestra Next will play live at the performances.
“Silk and Steel” is inspired by and set to medieval and Renaissance music. Props made of silk or steel are used in each of the five sections of the work. In one section, for example, dancers twirl long colorful silk banners. In another, dancers perform with large umbrellas handpainted by Eugene artist Steven Oshatz.
“I think the thing that carries this through is the music,” said Pimble, whose work is known for its musicality. “It’s all medieval, through the 16th and 17th centuries, and so that really ties it all together.”
It’s also a fun piece, she said, but it presents staging quandaries: “It’s a challenging piece to put so many people on stage with long silk banners, and not have them strangle each other,” she joked.
After the weekend performances, Pimble is stepping down from her role as artistic director. She leaves having mentored her successors and guided Eugene Ballet through the occasional rough stretch.
But it’s important, she said, to acknowledge that “there always will be lean times. Having done this 40-plus years, we have had our ups and downs, and the only reason we are here is because we saw that, we acknowledged it and didn’t pretend that we weren’t having a lean time.”
And that tempers her hopes for where Eugene Ballet will be a decade from now.
“What I hope for is that we will continue to flourish,” she said. “I don’t know how much we can grow. I feel that we need to be realistic about the city that we are in and to think of ourselves as like a little jewel box. You know, we don’t have to be huge to do good work.”
If You Go
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Silk and Steel” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 17 and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 18 at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, 1 Eugene Center. Tickets range from $25 to $70, with youth and college tickets available for $18 with valid ID. Tickets are available at eugeneballet.org or at the Hult Center ticket office or by calling 541-682-5000.
