TIME OUT, a ballet choreographed by Price Suddarth.  Premiere: Pacific Northwest Ballet School Performance June 16, 2012.  With music by J.S. Bach, costume design by Price Suddarth and lighting design by Randall G. Chiarelli.

As Suddarth's first large scale commission-- created for the Pacific Northwest Ballet School's annual school performance-- TIME OUT promised to stretch beyond the expected parameters.  [Silence].  Five men walk methodically across the stage, stopping at clearly defined places.  At each place lies a single metronome.  Tick, tick, tick... the metronomes begin to beat in unison, defining the parameters for each step.  As the movement expands, so does the relationship with the music.  The central pas de deux expresses a focus on three different duets-- one between a man and a woman, one between the piano and the metronome, and one between the dance and the music.  Following a rousing section danced by two couples--one that challenges both speed and endurance-- the complete cast of 17 dancers meets one final time, integrating the complexities of the movement with the demands of the tireless Bach score.  Throughout the piece, the relationship of dancer and music evolves-- moving from a codependency of definitively articulated parameters to a freedom of expression through mutual understanding and response.