
The last performance of Eugene Ballet’s season and the final show with Toni Pimble as artistic director promises to be a feast for the senses. On May 17 and 18, the company presents the fanciful A Midsummer Night’s Dream paired with the fast-paced flair of Silk & Steel.
Both of these pieces were picked by Pimble for this final performance because they are longtime favorites. Silk & Steel is a non-narrative piece, a vigorous, musical, and visually lush work. It’s followed by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, based on Shakespeare’s funny and charmingly whimsical tale, which brings a fantastical forest to life.
While in some ways contrasting works, their colorful, energetic, and imaginative nature make them a fitting swan song to Pimble’s 46-year career with the company.
Suzanne Haag, former Eugene Ballet principal dancer and now the company’s resident choreographer, says, “This evening will be a heartfelt celebration of Toni’s extraordinary vision and a perfect finale to a remarkable chapter in Eugene Ballet’s story.”
Silk & Steel

One could say that the title of the evening’s opening piece, Silk & Steel, is descriptive of Pimble herself.
Pimble and fellow Eugene Ballet founder Riley Grannan dedicated decades of their lives to building this company. The effort required tenacity, vision, passion, and a continual flow of partners and collaborators.
Along with the grit, constructing ballets requires artistry and imagination, and Pimble has brought her distinctive choreographic skills to more than 60 works during her career, making her Oregon’s most prolific ballet choreographer.

Silk & Steel premiered at Eugene Ballet in 1999 and shows off the theatrical side of Pimble’s choreography and her expansive musical sensibility.
The ballet is set to a compilation of early European music — ranging from a Pilgrim song of the Middle Ages to an anonymous 13th-century harp solo, an Italian 14th-century Istanpitta, and a Saltero from the 16th century, with compositions of well-known 16th- and 17th-century composers such as Michael Praetorius and Paul Peuerl. The ballet also features various bands including the Dufay Collective, The New London Consort, and The Chatham Baroque.
The choreography plays with color and texture. All of the dancers have silk ribbons, and the piece progresses with dancers mixing the primary colors such as red and blue ribbons into the secondary colors.
Always a collaborator, Pimble says the idea of incorporating steel was brought to her by a dancer. “While working on this ballet one of my dancers who studied martial arts came to me with an idea for a piece with steel fans,” explains Pimble. “The Japanese war fan is called a tessen, and the art of fighting with war fans is Tessenjutsu. However, these fans have also been used in Chinese dance, and this choreography combines these uses.”
The fourth movement of Silk & Steel opens with a tribute to American modern dance pioneer Loie Fuller. An early free-dance practitioner, Fuller developed her own natural movement and improvisation techniques and was noted for her work with large silk costumes and pioneering lighting effects.
“We open with a solo dancer and then add three more dancers in a riot of silk and color,” says Pimble.
Imagination, artistry, and humor

It’s not surprising that one of Shakespeare’s most fantastical and funny tales was selected by Pimble to close the performance.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a theatrical piece full of comedy and charm,” Pimble said. “We’ve kept Eugene’s Ballet’s original choreography for this work, but reinvented the visual world: one that is fanciful, creative, and fun.” The ballet takes place in the forest with the fairies, and “ballet is an ideal art form to represent fairies,” notes Pimble.
Eugene Ballet first performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1985, and this is the sixth time the company will present this piece. This performance includes both a reimagined set and new costumes.
Eugene-based artist Satoko Motouji, known for her work on another whimsical piece by Eugene Ballet, Peer Gynt, helped to revisualize the set. Together with videographer Katherine Frizzell, they crafted projected paintings that help shift the audience seamlessly from scene to scene.
Long an avid costume designer, Pimble helped craft the new array of fanciful garments with Eugene Ballet’s costume shop manager, Axel Dazee. “We have built all new costumes for the fairies and lovers. It will be a feast for the ears and eyes!” exclaims Pimble.
Orchestra Next, a training orchestra and the resident orchestra with the Eugene Ballet, will perform live at the performance. “Mendelssohn’s music for the production is beautifully written with full orchestra and voice. I fleshed it out with music from the same period by Rossini and Bottesini,” says Pimble. “Orchestra Next always brings depth and energy to the performance.”

The cast features Koki Yamaguchi as Puck, Koatsu Yashima as Titania Queen of the Fairies, Joshua Downard as Oberon King of the Fairies, and Reed Souther as Nick Bottom, the donkey.
“This ballet incorporates a wonderful sense of whimsy and humor, making it great for all ages,” says Associate Artistic Director Jennifer Martin. “It’s just the right balance between life and seriousness. Audiences get carried away by the sheer fun of this ballet, an experience created by a masterful mix of imagination, artistry, and humor. That is Toni’s genius.”
A new era
The performance is the end of an era for Eugene Ballet. The company ushers in new leadership that has been curated by Toni Pimble for many years. Jennifer Martin will move into the role of artistic director, with Suzanne Haag continuing as resident choreographer.
While not managing the day-to-day artistic business of the company, Pimble will stay creatively engaged with the company. And Eugene Ballet will continue to perform the amazing repertoire of work that Pimble created, while building toward the company’s future artistry.
The company will unveil its 2025–2026 season during both performances at the Hult Center.

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TICKETS range from $25 to $70, with youth and college tickets available for $18 (with valid ID). Available online at eugeneballet.org, in person at the Hult Center Ticket Office, or by phone at 541-682-5000.
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