Photos: Courtesy of Pacific Northwest Ballet
1, 2: Lucien Postlewaite. Photo by Lindsay Thomas
3: Lucien Postlewaite, Elle Macy, Christopher D'Ariano. Photo by Angela Sterling
4: Jerome Tisserand. Photo by Lindsay Thomas.
5: Lucien Postlewaite, Jerome Tisserand, Dylan Wald. Photo by Lindsay Thomas
6: Elizabeth Murphy, Leta Biasucci. Photo by Angela Sterling
7-8: Kyle Davis, Photo 7 by Angela Sterling, Photo 8 by Noel Pederson
9: Elle Macy, Dylan Wald. Photo by Angela Sterling.
Ghost Variations
Choreography: Jessica Lang
Creative Associate: Kanji Segawa
Music: Robert Schumann and Clara SchumannCostumes: Jillian Lewis
Lighting: Reed Nakayama
Length: 19 minutes
Number of Dancers: 8
Commissioned by Pacific Northwest Ballet, Artistic Director Peter Boal
World Premiere November 12, 2020 on PNB's Digital Season
World Premiere Cast: Leta Biasucci, Kyle Davis, Elizabeth Murphy, Lucien Postlewaite, Jerome Tisserand, Angelica Generosa, Elle Macy, Dylan Wald
Pianist Christina Siemens
"The haunting “Ghost Variations,” a favorite of mine since its first appearance in PNB’s COVID-era digital season, literally dances with shadows... It’s a quiet work that has the quality of a dream — the sort from which you hope you don’t wake up."
- Moira McDonald, The Seattle Times, June 1, 2026
Link to review ALL LANG PROGRAM
"I’d like to say that “Ghost Variations” is the finest thing Lang has done at PNB...The ballet, twenty minutes long, is extraordinarily delicate and rewards many repeat viewings and research. It strikes a perfect balance between stand-alone abstraction and narrative suggestion."
- Rachel Howard, Fjord, May 29, 2026
Link to Review ALL LANG PROGRAM
"Created during the pandemic “Ghost Variations” is a study in movement and music that captivates from the first note...Lang beautifully puzzles together thematic ideas while keeping the movement ever flowing, the choreography inventive and her musicality spotless... she has staged and choreographed a perfect reflection of the music as she does throughout making it hard to look away for even a second...Important art must be preserved and I hope this piece, “Ghost Variations” will live in PNB’s repertoire for a long time to come."
- Tam Warner, LA Dance Chronicle, June 19, 2026
"Lang’s choices at the body level were fresh and pleasing, smoothly mixing and melding both classical and contemporary influences. Yet grabbing me more was how she organized moving bodies in space and time..."
- Kathryn Boland, Dance Informa, July 7, 2026
Link to review ALL LANG PROGRAM
"Throughout the piece, the dancers seem to move around something that cannot be fully spoken. Gestures repeat and return altered, making the whole piece feel quietly haunted. Its ghosts are echoes of music, marriage, illness, and the self that remains when certainty begins to disappear, all so evocatively displayed through shadow and distortion."
- Jolene Pollich, The Daily, June 4, 2026
Link to Review ALL LANG PROGRAM
"Lang’s work brims with human fragility... Jessica Lang’s use of shadow in Ghost Variations is revolutionary. I’ve always found that a shadow upon the stage has the power to be gloriously haunting and metaphorically rich, but Lang takes the medium to new heights. A shadow is proof of existence, and oh, look at the form of this existence! To immediately know a dancer’s shadow as their own is a particular kind of beauty. In the present state of artificial-everything, the fact that these shadows are real, not pixels but glorious forms who are soon freed from one-dimensionality, captures an essence of humanity that we greet with near-relief."
- Seattle Ballet Journal, June 4, 2026
Link to Review ALL LANG PROGRAM
"I have seen this work at least three times now, and it is fresh and surprising each time."
- Marcie Sillman, ... And Another Thing, June 1, 2026
Link to review ALL LANG PROGRAM
"Ballet goers on the East Coast are now highly familiar with Lang, given her demand with major companies, but we’ve seen little of her work out west. “Ghost Variations” shows why she’s ascendant: the total package has quiet sophistication and integrity (the costumes by Jillian Lewis are especially fine, combining yards of Romantic-era tulle and patches of avant-garde asymmetry) but the choreography itself is the substance....There’s so much subtlety, too, in how the dancers drop in and out of unison; the whole ballet feels like a ball of mercury, and you marvel at how the atoms cling and separate, morphing the total shape. In short, this is a ballet to watch many times."
-Rachel Howard, fjordreview.com, November 12, 2020
"There are too many UGH SO GORGEOUS moments to mention, but you have to love the male trio’s entrechat dix-huit, and the space given to Postlewaite’s graceful promenade en arabesque, leg and arm cantilevered, a precious few seconds of personal equilibrium.
- Michael van Baker, The Sunbreak Magazine, November 13, 2020
"In Britain, Birmingham Royal Ballet audiences still purr with delight at the thought of Lang’s delightful Lyric Pieces and Wink, made for the company during David Bintley’s directorship. Her new Ghost Variations would have them sighing with happy contentment. It’s a compelling and delicious evocation of the music."
- David Mead, SeeingDance.com, November 12, 2020
"It’s a neoclassical work with an eerie twist: the dancers often share the stage with ghost partners, dancing in silhouette behind a scrim, or with their own shadows."
- Moira McDonald, The Seattle Times, November 12, 2020
“[Ghost Variations] may be choreographer Jessica Lang’s finest ballet to date...masterful in all the ways a ballet might aspire to be. It had adroit technical dancing and heartfelt emotion that elevated it to high art and even higher beauty. Ghost Variations, and PNB’s performance of it, was worthy of any stage in the world including its biggest, the Internet…bravo!”
- Steve Sucato, Exploredance.com, February 27, 2021
"It’s a too-brief little gem, with black-clad dancers whirling with each other and with shadows cast upstage, often quite wittily."
- Moira McDonald, The Seattle Times, November 8, 2021
"a striking piece. The women (Macy, Biasucci, Generosa, Murphy), especially, are a huge presence in this ballet. Strong and daring, watching them you think this is what dance is really all about."
-Gigi Berardi, Western Washington University, November 25, 2021
Pacific Northwest Ballet presents Ghost Variations in the company's 20-21 Digital Season in the Rep 2 program. The world premiere work was created for the digital stage, conceived, rehearsed, and produced during the pandemic.
Digital Premiere November 12, 2020
Stage Premiere November 5, 2021 at McCaw Hall
Performance History:
Pacific Northwest Ballet
July 13, 2021 in Sun Valley, ID (excerpt)
November 5-7, 2021 in Seattle, WA
May 29 - June 7, 2026 Seattle, WA