Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Artistic Director Adam W. McKinney often hands out chocolate on opening night of performances. “Because ballet is a non-speaking art form, communicating in other ways and bringing people together is key. Ballet is difficult to do when one is alone. I want to help people participate in this beautiful art making practice. It’s about making people feel welcome and that ballet is for them,” McKinney said. This May’s production of The Wizard of Oz is no exception. McKinney stepped into his director role in 2023 and has so far helped PBT balance family-friendly ballets, classics, and more contemporary works.
The Wizard of Oz is a relatively contemporary ballet, originally staged in 2018. It comes to Pittsburgh in a year when people have more familiarity with the plot The Wizard of Oz than they might on average, given that Wicked was 2024’s hugely popular box office hit, with a sequel coming out this fall. However, that was serendipitous—the reasoning behind doing The Wizard of Oz this year was a celebration of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s “Emerald Year” at 55. Earlier in the season, the ballet performed a contemporary showcase titled Spring Mix: 5 for 55 as an additional celebration. McKinney selected The Wizard of Oz for its thematic relevance, simple plot, and the technical prowess required of the dancers.
How Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Brings The Wizard of Oz To Life
The ballet interpretation follows the 1939 film plot almost exactly, so it’s easy to piece together what’s happening. Choreographer Septime Webre, Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Ballet, brought with him a stager from the original performance who’s danced it before to help the PBT artists rehearse. PBT has also performed Peter Pan in 2007 and his Cinderella in 2009 and 2013.
During rehearsals, Webre noted that he wanted the artists to perform “big, photographic movements.” At one point, he laughed to himself that there are certain steps he felt silly choreographing because of how exaggerated they are, but the PBT artists did them with such conviction and grace that it elevated them. The Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man in particular have complex, stylized choreography that toes the line between gracefulness and physical comedy.
There’s “a lot of dancing in this ballet,” McKinney explained, with many large group scenes and highly technical steps. At one moment, the artist playing Dorothy has to step over the backs of three other cast members as if they’re stairs. At another time, a group of artists does a Ziegfield Follies-esque choreography in the Emerald City, with a matching jazzy moment in the score. There’s also a balance of masculine and feminine roles, with both dynamic, strength-focused choreography and more delicate pirouettes.
The ballet has two alternating casts, and McKinney had to make decisions about who would grow best in which role. One PBT artist got to learn puppetry in order to be the hands behind Toto, portrayed by a prop that moves around with lifelike nimbleness. One of the apprentice artists in the cast will be receiving a promotion due to his work in The Wizard of Oz, a testament to the way cast members have grown during the rehearsal process.
Conveying Emotions Through Music and Dance
McKinney noted that The Wizard of Oz touches on universal emotions conveyed through dance—“friendship,” “connection,” “community,” “fear of danger,” “the power of story,” and…“the joy of living in Kansas.” McKinney is a born-and-raised Midwesterner and showed me the sweet, homey rhythm of the musical motif used for the scenes in Kansas in the ballet.
“The music for this ballet beautifully connotes the story through orchestration, melody, and polyphony,” McKinney said. He noted that not all ballets have original scores—i.e., music tailor-made for the ballet rather than an existing classical music score—so a production like this lets audiences experience something entirely new. “When ballet and dance are performed to live music, the experience is richer and it brings more people into the present moment. It’s a win-win when this can happen with the PBT Orchestra,” he added.
Ballet Has Many Entry Points, The Wizard of Oz is One
McKinney sees his role as Artistic Director as a curatorial one, and a ballet like The Wizard of Oz hits many of the beats he wants both audiences and performers to experience. “I want to share the talent of our artists and the talent of the PBT orchestra,” he said. “Ballet has many entry points. I love looking out into an audience and seeing this actualized swath of the Pittsburgh population.”
The Wizard of Oz has performances two weekends May 9 through May 18, with a special performance on May 11 for Mother’s Day. McKinney is excited to share it with audiences of all levels of ballet knowledge. “People care deeply about Pittsburgh ballet Theatre. We have a great responsibility to maintain the highest standards of ballet of classical work, but there are also opportunities to expand the lexicon of ballet,” he said.
Story by Emma Riva
Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
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