Less Balanchine: Terry Orr recasts Pittsburgh Ballet.

One afternoon last spring, the music of both Felix Mendelssohn and Bruce Springsteen emanated from the studios and mingled in the atrium of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's multi-studio complex in the city's warehouse district.

The rich Mendelssohn melody leads to Studio F, where Christopher Rendall-Jackson, not quite the love-besotted Lysander, kneels in his yellow sweat pants. He kisses the hand of his confused Helena, an expressive Erin Halloran, wearing a blue chiffon practice skirt. Gnest repetiteur Francia Russell, a keeper of the Balanchine flame who is versed in each nuance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, darts toward the posed pair, unconvinced of Rendall-Jackson's ardor. She admonishes him and then demonstrates to Hermia (Kaori Ogasawara) the proper way to gasp at his infidelity.

In an adjacent studio, Canadian choreographer Matjash Mrozewski (see "25 to Watch," January, 2004, page 41)conducts his new ballet while standing atop a metal stool. Wearing sweats and a T-shirt, he gestures excitedly, toots an invisible saxophone along with the Springsteen riff, and stretches forward, rubbing his lower spine. Later he slides to the floor to demonstrate what looks like a pushup combined with an air turn.

At PBT, under the directorship of Terrence S. Orr, Mendelssohn and Springsteen, and Balanchine and Mrozewski coexist. Pittsburgh's repertoire of Balanchine works was cultivated by former artistic director Patricia Wilde, a longtime New York City Ballet principal. Orr is steering his medium-size company along a new avenue.

PBT's thirty sixth season, which from October 28-31 features Ben Stevenson's Dracula, is the first to break its twenty-two year Balanchine tradition. Orr is nurturing a taste for change that he hopes will distinguish PBT from other troupes, as it reenters the competitive touring market and bids for prominent venues like its recent engagement at Wolf Trap in Virginia and New York's Joyce Theatre, where it performs next spring.

When I came to PBT in 1997," says Orr, an American Ballet Theatre alumnus, "its mainstay was Balanchine. That background developed technique and strength in the women and put the company on the map." While there are no Balanchine ballets programmed for the 2004-05 season, Orr remains committed to inviting artists like Russell, who worked directly with the late master, to share that legacy with his thirty full-time dancers.

However, Orr's vision looks beyond Pittsburgh's Cultural District, home to the 2,770-seat Benedum Center, where PBT performs four series per year plus the annual Nutcracker. He notes that by 1997, PBT's visibility was down. He is aiming to create a unique repertory that represents not only PBT, but also Pittsburgh. "I believe in commissioning contemporary ballets, in building collaborations with the city's other arts organizations, and in bringing in world-renowned choreographers," he says.

Four years ago PBT commissioned a package of ballets by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Kevin O'Day, and Dwight Rhoden that capitalized on Pittsburgh's jazz music heritage. These works, with their improvised musical accompaniment, breathed excitement into the local scene.

However, Rhoden's torso-focused choreography required difficult torques combined with unfamiliar and uncomfortable coordinations. "Dancers were in my office in tears," says Orr. "They didn't feel that they could do it. But it's good for the company to work with living choreographers who have something to say."

More recently PBT's focus has shifted to pop music icons including Sting, Springsteen, and this season, Paul Simon. Orr seeks choreographers who are inspired by the challenge. "There's no fire without a spark," he says, quoting Springsteen. The results have produced O'Day's sleek Sting/ING Situations, Mrozewski's poignant Lost and Found and gritty Straight Life, and Derek Deane's demi-caractere charmer Hungary Heart ... 'we all have one'!!!, which elicited gasps from the audience and a standing ovation.

"I learned a new body language from Kevin," says Dmitri Kulev, who was promoted to principal this season. The Bolshoi-trained artist says that pop music ballets were unheard of in his native Moscow. "I had to learn English to follow the lyrics and had to adapt the relaxed, mellow jazz moves to my ballet technique."

Orr prefers to import dance makers to keep PBT on its toes, but has tried his hand at choreography. Like Cinderella's prince, the former ABT ballet master traveled the globe seeking The Nutcracker of his dreams. When he failed to find the perfect fit, he decided to create his own. PBT's The Nutcracker (2002) keeps the traditional story line, but is set in 1904 Pittsburgh at the home of a wealthy family, with party guests drawn from the city's prominent families of the day, including Mr. and Mrs. Heinz, and at a local amusement park with an enchanted carousel. (The Heinz Foundation, headed by Teresa Heinz Kerry, is a supporter of the production, while the biggest sponsor is Kaufmann's Department Store, and members of the Kaufmann family are portrayed in the party scene.) He also choreographed a new interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, which premiered at the Hollywood Bowl last year.

In the studio, Rendall-Jackson, who, with his wife Ogasawara, joined PBT in 1999 after stint with Boston Ballet, feels that Orr's creative process is challenging and satisfying. "He is concerned with the energy quality that he wants. He gives us something to work with, for example, 'a fast spinning step.' He sees how you develop it and watches how other dancers go with it." The San Francisco Ballet-trained soloist feels that the PBT coaching experience has developed him as a dancer. "I've learned to pay attention to visual things, and I've been taught what to show the audience."

While Orr is not planning to produce a repertoire of condensed classics, he hopes to retool Romeo's Act III. Full-length ballets, though expensive to tour, traditionally out-sell mixed bills in Pittsburgh. This season, in addition to Dracula, originally co-produced with Houston Ballet, he is producing The Sleeping Beauty staged by himself and former PBT ballet master Janek Schergen, and Stanton Welcb's Madame Butterfly.

Orr and his wife, ballet mistress Marianna Tcherkassky, who was an ABT star in the 1970s and '80s, have reinvigorated PBT's classics and raised performance standards. Tcherkassky coaches PBT's Giselle to "help the dancers find the Giselle in themselves," she says. In the mad scene, she encourages the dancers to draw from painful situations in their own lives. For Act II, she teaches them to create the illusion of floating. The secret to freshness, she says, is to "take from the previous performance, learn from it, and move forward."

Principal Maribel Modrono, a native of Cuba who was lured to PBT in 1997 by its diverse repertoire, says that working with Tcherkassky "is like working with an angel. The experience makes you sing from the inside. And, she's so patient. Terry opens up my mind and helps me to step out of myself to become what the part demands."

Orr says he chooses his dancers for their talent, line, and musicality. Approximately two thirds of them are Americans, while others hail from Canada, Eastern Europe, China, South Korea, and Japan. Last year, finances forced Orr to reduce the staff by one-third and cut six dancers, which in turn, necessitated dropping Act II of Midsummer. Although the loss of National Endowment for the Arts funding has reduced touring, PBT revisited Wolf Trap in August after an eleven-year lapse. He foresees a return to the university concert circuit and hopes to perform at European festivals and Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center.

Orr continues to strategize for new productions and for the company's financial future. With his commitment to the classics, his eye on pop culture, and his focus down the road, he and PBT are ready to grand jete en avant.

RELATED ARTICLE: PBT raises the barre on injury-prevention.

Imagine getting through a season with no injuries. PBT is one of several dance companies riding a new wave toward injury-prevention. Rather than focusing on injuries after the fact, these companies aim to stop common occupational problems in their tracks. Today, injuries are no longer an unavoidable part of being a professional dancer. The trick is to know which preventive measures reap the most benefits.

In 1998, PBT's medical team, headed by Drs. Freddie Fu and David Stone, who are affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for Sports Medicine, instituted pre-season screenings for orthopedic problems. Sports teams typically pre-screen to spot potential injuries before competitions, but dance companies have been slow to apply this tactic. Although dance can be more physically demanding than most sports, dancers learn to ignore minor aches and pains while focusing on aesthetic problems, such as poor turnout. The "no pain, no gain" attitude of the dance field may create more problems than it solves, especially when professionals suffer in silence. According to the company's athletic trainer, Kathleen Nachazel, PBT dancers who correct physical deficits and residual tightness of looseness from a prior injury seem to have fewer new injuries,

On-site fitness training with a variety of modalities, such as the stationary bike, is also helping professional dancers prevent injuries. For example, while performing can be extremely demanding, few techniques, apart from African dance forms, are aerobic. Thus, dancers who want to develop stamina need to work out at the gym. PBT has a special training center, where dancers can use elliptical machines, stationary bikes, and free weights. Megan Trambley, a PBT corps member, cross-trains to prevent an old stress fracture from coming back. During the four months that it took for her injury to heal, she also jogged in the pool and did upper body work. "Being active kept me from going crazy. I was on crutches but I could stay in shape."

Similar to elite athletes like Tiger Woods, ballet dancers are learning the benefits of cross-training on a regular basis. Personal habits can make of break a dance career. Recently, PBT began lectures geared towards improving poor eating habits, as well as alleviating performance anxiety. Having been taught from an early age to be stoic, dancers often find it difficult to ask for help. According to Nachazel, "It was difficult at first because the dancers weren't sure how we were going to use the information." Dancers often believe that admitting problems means that they are deficient. Not so. Still, developing trust in a trainer takes time. See www.pbt.org.--LINDA HAMILTON