Ghost Variations

World Premiere: Pacific Northwest Ballet, PNB Digital
Choreography: Jessica Lang
Music: Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann
Costumes: Jillian Lewis
Lighting: Reed Nakayama

Commissioned by: Pacific Northwest Ballet, Artistic Director Peter Boal  

Photos: Leta Biasucci, Kyle Davis, Elizabeth Murphy, Lucien Postlewaite, Jerome Tisserand, Angelica Generosa, Elle Macy, and Dylan Wald

 Ghost Variations was composed by Robert Schumann in 1854, the last work he ever wrote, just prior to being committed to an asylum for insanity. Schumann believed he was being haunted by composers from the grave who were dictating the theme to him—forgetting he had already written it himself. The work was dedicated to his wife Clara, who guarded this final score and would not allow the theme and five variations to be published until finally they appeared in 1939.

This ballet weaves Robert Schumann’s “ghost” theme and two of the variations with Clara Schumann’s own piano compositions.

 Jessica Lang’s ballet ‘Ghost Variations’ was created in August 2020 during the global pandemic. Keeping to the protocols of two pods of four dancers, donned in masks, physically distanced, and never touching (unless cohabitating), sometimes behind plexiglass, with covers on Zoom in other studios, this is a ballet created for the stage with costumes and theatrical lighting. “It was my intention to create a ballet for the stage that was filmed and broadcast as opposed to making a dance film” said Jessica Lang. Ghost Variations will seamlessly transfer to the stage for live performance when it is safe for all of us to gather in theaters again.