Haag had choreographed in the past for the Eugene
Ballet School, but never for the company itself.
“Toni is, obviously, passionate about creating new
work, and she appreciates people that are creative and
do want to create new work. And she knew that that was
an interest of mine,” Haag says. “She approached me
first to create a new work for the ballet and then also
with this potential plan in mind.”
Marking the transition, in a sense, will be the
company’s upcoming production of Igor Stravinsky’s
ballet The Firebird, which runs April 13 and 14 at the
Hult Center.
Eugene Ballet performed Pimble’s version of The
Firebird as the first ballet ever danced at the Hult
Center when the building opened in 1982. She decided
the company should take on the Stravinsky once again.
“She wanted it to be revisited, but in a new way,” Haag
says. “And then she asked me if I would do that. I think
I said ‘Yes’ before she asked! The music is so beautiful.”
Pimble’s version, which Haag has watched on video,
“definitely evokes the fairytale feel of the original, yet
with her own movement style. It has sort of an enchanted
look to it.”
Haag says she can’t change the plot of the ballet,
but she can definitely change the setting. “So I decided
to go with a dystopic, futuristic way for this. And so
that’s what I’ve been kind of playing around with, seeing
how this sort of timeless tale can be transported to a
different setting.”
Pimble looks back on that first Firebird with a
combination of nostalgia and awe. She and Grannan
were just kids when they came to Eugene, she says. They
had been working in Germany, where music and the arts
are state-supported, and had little idea of the economic
realities of doing professional ballet in the U.S.
“I think what we were doing was way beyond what we
could honestly afford,” she says. “You know, we opened
the Hult Center in ’82, right after the symphony, with
The Firebird, with a full orchestra! Um, we couldn’t really
afford that right now.”
SUZANNE HAAG
I ask whether Pimble has ever regretted not living in
an arts capital like New York.
“I still like creating on my own company,” she says.
“It is the most comfortable place for me artistically to
create work on, because you chose the dancers, you
know the dancers. They know you.”
And, she says, you have more control in a smaller
company.
When Pimble was invited to choreograph a work
for the New York City Ballet in 1992, she worked out an
eight-minute dance — “Two’s Company” — to music by
Antonin Dvörak with three of the company dancers.
“And then [NYCB Ballet Master] Peter Martins came
JENNIFER MARTIN
along and said, ‘Well, eight minutes is not enough. You
need to do a longer piece, and you need to have more
dancers in it.’ And I was like, ‘OK, anything you say,
Peter.’ And so I did, and I was not happy with it, you
know, it was not what I wanted. And so on the opening
night, I felt like I was going to my own execution.”
As it happened, the work was saved by a twist of fate:
Two of the dancers she added were injured in another
performance.
“I got this phone call early in the morning saying,
‘Well, we could shift your ballet to another time, you
know, another day and another time. Or Peter said that
he knew you kind of wanted it to only be a trio. Do you
want to just do the trio?”
Pimble smiles at the memory. The audience response
to the smaller work, she says, was “like night and day.”
Eugene Ballet’s slow-motion leadership change really
started in 2016, when Grannan retired as managing
director and was replaced, as executive director, by
Josh Neckels — Jennifer Martin’s husband.
Their relationship brings up another aspect of
Pimble’s management style: She’s not opposed to
keeping things in the family. Some businesses frown on
office romances. Not this ballet.
“The corporate model is, you can’t have a relationship
with somebody,” she says. “That’s ridiculous. It’s absurd.
We’re human beings. We’re not automatons. And in
dance, my god, are we ever human beings!”
Pimble ticks off a number of couples, married and
otherwise, in the company today.
“They connect, you know, they’re together. They’re,
in a very personal way, interacting with one another
physically, especially in partnering. So why would you
stymie that?”
Meanwhile, Pimble admits her retirement plan
requires a great deal of trust in the women she’s
designated to replace her. She expects it to work.
“It’s a slow transition, working with Suzanne and with
Jenn and hoping to be able to step away in five years. I
feel confident that they can handle it. I’m going to think
they could do it now if they had to. But I have things I
want to get done before I step away.” ■
‘ T H E G R E AT E ST C H A L L E N G E W I L L B E M OV I N G TO N I ’ S V I S I O N FO R WA R D,
W H I L E M A I N T A I N I N G T H E I N T E G R I T Y S H E S O B E A U T I F U L LY A N D G R A C E F U L LY H A S C R E A T E D .
THE EUGENE BALLET HAS A LASTING LEGACY OF HER CHOREOGRAPHIC WORKS,
B U T S H E W E A R S S O M A N Y H ATS ; T H E S E A R E V E RY AW E S O M E S H O E S TO F I L L .’ —
E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M
Jennifer Martin
F E B R U A R Y
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