Pacific NW Ballet announces 2009-10 season

Pacific Northwest Ballet has announced its new season, which emphasizes artistic director Peter Boal's trademark mixture of contemporary choreographers and neoclassical masters. It will include four full-length narrative ballets (up from two this season), beginning Sept. 24 with the return of Jean-Christophe Maillot's stark, haunting "Roméo et Juliette," which made its company debut last year.

George Balanchine's 1974 ballet "Coppélia," a comedic tale of a dancing doll, will make its PNB premiere next spring. (The ballet was previously in PNB's repertory, in a version choreographed by former co-artistic director Kent Stowell.) It will feature new costumes and sets by Roberta Guidi di Bagno, who designed "The Merry Widow" for PNB in 2002. Other full-length ballets include the return of Ronald Hynd's "The Sleeping Beauty," last seen at PNB in 2006, and the traditional holiday run of "Nutcracker."

Three mixed-repertory evenings complete the season, with a March program devoted to the work of Ulysses Dove (including the PNB premiere of Dove's "Serious Pleasures") and an all-Balanchine program in April ("Serenade," "Square Dance" and "The Four Temperaments"). A "Director's Choice" program in November will include the world premiere of Val Caniparoli's "The Seasons," the PNB premiere of Jiri Kylian's "Petite Mort," and remountings of Marco Goecke's modern solo "Mopey" and Jerome Robbins' "West Side Story Suite."

Subscriptions are on sale now; single tickets will be available in July. For more information, see www.pnb.org or call the box office at 206-441-2424.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com