Pennsylvania Ballet announces 2016-17 season

This year, Don Quixote, next year, Le Corsaire.

Angel Corella will recreate another highly popular full-length ballet in his third year as artistic director, he said, announcing the Pennsylvania Ballet's 2016-17 season.

He has also added a third full-length ballet to the lineup, commissioned more new work, and shifted the timing of the season.

Le Corsaire, set to music by Adolphe Adam, is a pirate story based loosely on a Lord Byron poem, and it's a ballet Corella knows extremely well. But it is less known to Philadelphia audiences, as the Pennsylvania Ballet has never danced it. He will work on it as he did Don Quixote - keeping the best of the original Marius Petipa steps and choreographing new sections.

"Corsaire, it's very close to me, because it's like Don Q: Those are the two ballets that I'm most well-known for," Corella said. "Those are ballets that are great to showcase the dancers."

They are also light and fun, works he hopes will encourage new audience members.

"What a lot of people say to me is that 'I don't really understand much about ballet, but I really enjoy it.' And I say, 'If you enjoy it, you understand it. That's all it needs.' "

Corella also thinks the Pennsylvania Ballet should be more of a constant presence in Philadelphia. Next season will start and end earlier, with programs running every month from October through December and March through May.

"We're shortening that period" between ballets, Corella said, "so that we don't just pop up and go away, pop up and go away. We really want to be a presence on Broad Street."

"The month of June program is rough," marketing manager and former dancer Jonathan Stiles said, because audiences are already in summer mode.

The depths of winter can be tough, as well, he said. "We had a blizzard. Luckily, [it hit] 10 days out [from a performance], not two days out. That's always a worry there in terms of our schedule."

The longer summer means more opportunities to tour and perform at festivals, although the first announced tour is in December, when Pennsylvania Ballet warms up George Balanchine's The Nutcracker in Cleveland before bringing it to the Academy of Music.

The 2016-17 season will open in October with Ben Stevenson's Cinderella, to music by Sergei Prokofiev. The Pennsylvania Ballet last performed it in 2009.

"I've had the pleasure of doing a million different Cinderellas all over the world," Corella said, "and, to be honest, I think Ben's is the best. Ben Stevenson just captures the whole magic and the whole comedy and tragedy at the same time of Cinderella. The stepsisters are hilarious."

The three repertory programs will follow a format: one world premiere, one company premiere, and one or more Balanchine ballets.

The November program, titled "Revolution," will feature The Third Light by British choreographer David Dawson; Balanchine's Square Dance; and a world premiere from Philadelphia choreographer Brian Sanders, who creates highly imaginative Cirque du Soleil-like works for his own company, Brian Sanders/JUNK.

Corella was sold after seeing Sanders' latest FringeArts show, American Standard, in September.

"I said to him, 'You know, I know you don't usually work with ballet dancers,' " Corella said. "But, I said, 'You shouldn't change anything of your creativity. You should really go for it.' So I'm really excited and really curious about what he's going to do."

December will be reserved for George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, and the spring will continue in March with Le Corsaire (The Pirate).

The Romance program in April will feature Nacho Duato's Remansos, Balanchine's Western Symphony, and a world premiere from Nicolo Fonte, who created Grace Action for the ballet in June 2015 and has done several works with BalletX.

Remansos began as a work Duato did for American Ballet Theatre for three strong men and is now popular on video. Duato later created a second section for three women. The Pennsylvania Ballet will perform the full work.

The season will end with a program called Re/Action. It will feature Christopher Wheeldon's Rush, as fast-moving as its title suggests; a world premiere from choreographer-in-residence Matthew Neenan; and three Balanchine duets: Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux, Tarantella, and the less-frequently performed Sylvia Pas De Deux.

edunkel@philly.com@edunkel