After 46 years as the artistic director of Eugene Ballet, Toni Pimble is passing on the torch. As a dance teacher, Pimble has helped shape several generations of dancers and, having choreographed over 60 works, is one of Oregon’s most acclaimed and prolific choreographers. Since 1979, she has transformed the small company and ballet school into an internationally recognized dance company. “Toni’s impact on this company, this city, and the arts community at large is immeasurable,” says Brian McWhorter, Eugene Ballet music director and longtime Pimble collaborator.

Eugene Ballet’s 2024/2025 season is dedicated as a tribute to Pimble, featuring encore performances of some of her own favorite pieces among the many works she has choreographed, including Mowgli (2012-13), The Nutcracker (1981-82), Carmen (2007-08), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1985-86).

And, on Saturday, April 12 at the Silva Concert Hall at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, the company will present “The Toni’s,” a one-night retrospective featuring five defining works from Pimble’s tenure which showcase the breadth of her creativity and career. The evening includes May Dances (1980-81), Two’s Company (1992-93), Concerto for Seven Dancers, a pas de deux from The Taming of the Shrew (2021-22), and the debut of her new work, The Lark Ascending, inspired by the larks she watched as a little girl in England.

Drawing from four decades of choreography 

Toni Pimble hand-picked the pieces for “The Toni’s” herself, following a chronology of her career. “I have done so many ballets that focusing on each decade, and in particular on specifics within a decade, helped me land on the pieces selected for this show,” she explained.

During her first decade, Pimble’s choreography skills were growing and May Dances was one of the first pieces that she choreographed. Pimble and Riley Grannan, company co-founder and her then husband, were still forming the Eugene Ballet company, so they brought in a strong cadre of experienced dancers, as well as a strong group of students, to perform the work. “May Dances was important to me personally because so many dancers in Eugene contributed to the piece by putting their tights back on and getting in the studio with Riley and me,” says Pimble. 

Over the years Eugene Ballet has done an array of collaborations with other arts groups and guest performers, so Pimble had many opportunities to create works for other companies and guest dancers. In the early 1990s, she created Two’s Company, working with New York City Ballet dancers. In 2003, during the third decade of her tenure, she created the Concerto for Seven Dancers specifically for the Oregon Bach Festival, choreographed to Bach’s joyful triple violin concerto.

Pimble has choreographed numerous full-length ballets over the years. The piece selected from the fourth decade of her career is a pas de deux from one of her most recent full-length works, The Taming of the Shrew. 

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“And because I am never quite done, it follows up with a new ballet to Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending,” says Pimble.

A vivid childhood memory comes alive

The Lark Ascending is a deeply personal swan song.

Pimble grew up in Camberley, England, and attended the renowned Elmhurst Ballet School. “Each year our family would holiday at West Wittering on the South coast,” she says. “In a farmer’s field next to the beach, I would hear larks singing as they rose into the sky from the fields. It is one of my fondest childhood memories, a time of innocence and great happiness.”

The memory stuck with Pimble, and she has been mulling the idea for a ballet based on the lark for many years. She says she started with the idea of one female dancer as the lark partnering with five accompanying dancers, and the idea became a collaboration from there. “Choreographing with dancers is a collaborative experience,” says Pimble, “so while I enter the studio with a concept and a clear understanding of the layout of the music, I do not have choreographic specifics. The movements are created in the studio with the dancers.”

During the piece, while the accompanying dancers stay on stage, the “lark” comes and goes. The “lark” partners with the accompanying dancers, who act as a corps de ballet dancing with their own movement quality, as well as shadowing the “lark” in her movements.

“This piece is an emotional reflection on my childhood,” Pimble says, “a metaphor for innocence and for the transition that comes with the close of this chapter.” 

Celebrating an arts leader

Pimble holds the longest-running directorship of any female artistic director in a United States ballet company, but this evening is a celebration of the special place Pimble holds in Eugene’s cultural landscape. 

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“Toni has helped shape the Eugene arts and culture scene into what it is today,” says resident choreographer Suzanne Haag. “Not only has she created world-class choreography and brought dancers from across the nation and the world to perform at the Hult Center, but she has also engaged in countless collaborations with musicians, visual artists, conductors, guest choreographers, and designers. These collaborations have enriched the arts in Eugene and built a network of artistic connections throughout the state and country.”

Jennifer Martin, a former Eugene Ballet dancer and current associate artistic director, takes over at the helm of the company this fall.

Ticket information

Tickets are limited for this one-time special production. For more information, visit Eugene Ballet’s online box office.