Celebrating Corey Bourbonniere’s PBT Career
PBT Soloist Corey Bourbonniere completes their tenure with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre at the end of the 2024-25 Season. We wish Corey all the best for their amazing journey ahead!
Corey danced with PBT for more than 13 years. After graduating from the PBT School Graduate Program in 2012, they joined the PBT company. Corey was promoted to the Corps de Ballet in 2013 and to a Soloist in 2019. They have won numerous awards, including Pointe Magazine’s “Standout Performance of 2019” for “Bernardo” in West Side Story Suite and Pointe Magazine’s “Standout Performance of 2022” for Donald Byrd’s From Other Suns.
Below, Corey remembers some of their career highlights and favorite roles throughout the years.
Ballet: In the Upper Room by Twyla Tharp
Role: Stomper
Year: 2013
“This was the first ballet I performed after undergoing knee surgery. At times, it felt like an uphill battle to get myself in shape to perform it, but this was probably the most transcendent ballet I’ve ever performed. It healed me physically and spiritually. To be one of the stompers gliding around the stage in sneakers was so fun! Shelley Washington (stager for In the Upper Room and former cast member) was a joy to work with.”
Ballet: In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated by William Forsythe
Year: 2014
“I felt so lucky to dance in the opening night cast of this Forsythe masterpiece. I was so green (literally and figuratively) in my third season at PBT, but this ballet pushed me to new heights and stretched the limits of what I thought I was capable of.”
Ballet: The Man in Black by James Kudelka
Year: 2016
“25 minutes. 4 dancers. Cowboy boots. Johnny Cash. Not a whole lot more to add–other than dancing the solo to Cash’s cover of ‘Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails was a career highlight.”
Ballet: West Side Story Suite by Jerome Robbins
Role: Bernardo
Year: 2018
“It was so fun to marry my musical theater background with my ballet career. Julio Monge (the stager of this work) invited me to audition for the role in Francesca Zambello’s full-length West Side Story at the Glimmerglass Festival, when a scheduling conflict left them needing a last-minute replacement. I had the time of my life performing with some amazing opera and musical theater artists that summer!”
Ballet: Divertimento No.15 by George Balanchine
Year: 2018
“This was the first principal role I had in a Balanchine ballet, and I felt so honored to dance two pas de deux with former soloist artist Marisa Grywalski and former principal artist Amanda Cochrane. It’s one of my favorite ballets I’ve ever danced. It was a moment when I was so thankful to be able to give my community a moment of beauty and escape after the terror that took place at the Tree of Life synagogue earlier that same day.”
Ballet: Petal by Helen Pickett
Years: 2021 and 2024
“This was the very first ballet I performed back at the Benedum Center after the COVID-19 lockdowns. It is a ballet that pushes the dancer to the limits physically, musically and artistically, brilliantly choreographed by Helen Pickett. I remember sobbing as the curtain came down, as I was so thankful to be back on that stage after a year and a half. It felt like coming home.”
Ballet: Giselle by Terrence Orr after Jean Coralli & Jules Perrot, with revisions by Marius Petipa
Role: Hilarion
Years: 2016 and 2019
“Giselle was the first ballet I was ever a part of as a young dancer, and it was my first performance as an apprentice at PBT. Hilarion was my first featured role in a classical ballet with PBT when I was in the corps de ballet, and it was also the first role I performed as a soloist. Suffice to say this ballet has a very special place in my heart. I love the complexity of Hilarion. He’s portrayed somewhat as a villain, but he loves Giselle, and ultimately wants what’s best for her.”
Ballet: Petite Mort by Jiří Kylián
Years: 2015 and 2018
“I grew up watching this ballet, never imagining I’d perform it. It was a huge bucket list piece. Kylián is incredibly musical and inventive in his partnering. Nothing on stage has ever been scarier than balancing a fencing sword on my fingertip over my head as the curtain went up, and being the person that everyone followed for timing as we lowered our blades in unison!”
Ballet: Dracula by Michael Pink
Role: Jonathan Harker
Year: 2023
“Michael Pink’s Dracula feels like you’re in a silent film. It was one of the most theatrical story ballets I’ve ever been a part of. It was so cool marrying my vampire film and TV nerd brain with my ballet career! The twisted seduction of Dracula’s brides and the Count himself was thrilling to portray!”
Ballet: The Nutcracker by Terrence S. Orr
Role: Drosselmeyer
Years: 2013-2024
“I have had many ups and downs with this role, as I was never one who loved dealing with props. It has become my favorite role to revisit every Nutcracker season. While there is so much magic and sleight of hand going on, the driving force in that ballet is the love story between Drosselmeyer’s nephew (the Nutcracker) and Marie. It’s been a real honor playing the sort of narrator in this ballet, filling the shoes of the late, long-time corps de ballet artist Stephen Hadala, former soloist artist Rob Moore and former principal artist Alejandro Diaz (to name a few)–all of whom I watched play the role before me. I often find myself tearing up when the Nutcracker takes his toy head off after the battle scene, and the curse that afflicted his face in the first act is healed. No matter how many times I’ve played that scene, there’s a rush of emotions that comes from years of being able to fully settle into this character. It feels truly magical.”
Photos Courtesy of Corey Bourbonniere & Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre