A new ‘Petrushka’ is bringing shape-shifting human puppets to Philadelphia

Stravinsky’s Petrushka is beloved in the orchestral world, a landmark in the dance community, and for all audiences, one of the most peculiarly passionate ballet stories ever told.

Seedy carnival puppets come to life, fall in love, die bitterly, and haunt adversaries mercilessly. But will that music/theater package thrive when dramatically transformed by BalletX — in its latest collaboration with Philadelphia Chamber Music Society?

Sight unseen, anticipation runs so high that the Jan. 8 and 9 performances at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater are sold out (but with waitlists). The program, including Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, promises much to be seen — far from the 1911 Paris premiere by the world-changing Ballets Russes.

For the story full of loneliness and jealousy, with a street-theater puppet show, the setting is Shrovetide Tuesday during what is now called Mardi Gras season. In this new version, the time setting for the traveling troupe is updated to the Great Depression. Petrushka — a role once performed by the legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky — becomes Pete.

“We’ve changed it up quite a bit,” said BalletX resident choreographer Amy Hall Garner, who has also worked with the Joffrey Ballet. “The beauty of Stravinsky’s music is that the ballet can take different routes and still support the story.”

The ballet was never meant to be cute. The primary point of reference for many modern audiences was a production by the sophisticated puppeteer Basil Twist — which has been seen in several venues since 2001, sometimes with two-piano accompaniment. The challenge, outlined at that time in a video interview by Twist, is projecting intense feelings among characters that “are supposed to be puppets, not supposed to be people.”

In Garner’s version, dancers will be humans at some turns, puppets in others.

The murderous Moor of the original has his plot functions replaced by, among others, a circus Strong Man and a magician known as the Charlatan. Such extrapolations are relatively respectful in light of how Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring has been turned from a ballet about pagan sacrifice to a modern gangster story by the much-admired choreographer Paul Taylor.

The foundation of any Petrushka is the score. In contrast to many dance companies that use prerecorded music, the lavishly orchestrated Stravinsky original has been transcribed for piano quintet (piano and strings) by the ensemble 132, a collective of musicians in their 20s and 30s, formed in 2019, many having graduated from the Curtis Institute, their name drawn from one of Beethoven’s revolutionary opus numbers. They will not only be in the 500-seat Perelman Theater, but will be seen onstage.

“There’s no hiding them,” said Garner. “Dance and music are like brother and sister — with all those heartbeats onstage. It’s a special connection that we don’t get to experience all of the time in the arts. It’s an unseen dialogue with the musicians integrated into the story.”

The project is part of a continuing collaboration between BalletX and PCMS that included a 2022 event with the Calidore Quartet — brokered in part by a mutual board member of the two organizations, Vince Tseng.

It’s also driven by the companies wanting to expand their respective audiences, both sides of which are open to such artistic cross-pollination when presented to them in their regular concert-going flight patterns.

For PCMS, much of the attraction comes out of fascination with BalletX. “We don’t usually get involved with a brand new work like this,” said PCMS artistic director Miles Cohen. “It’s impossible not to love what they do.”

What came first in this case was the Petrushka chamber-size version that was created a few years ago by and for ensemble 132.

Reducing Petrushka’s many details and colors might seem daunting. But because Stravinsky was a piano-based composer, tracing his thoughts back to their sound source isn’t impossible. “My focus was to present the gesture and the mood,” said ensemble member Sahun Sam Hong, co-artistic director and pianist of ensemble 132. “It’s music about characters but I don’t attempt to make value judgments on those characters.”

Still, psychological questions can’t help but arise for the musicians. Since the Petrushka character has a history of being a mere puppet, ensemble 132 member Zachary Mowitz speculates, “he’s going through adult matters and isn’t prepared to handle it.”

“Where does Petrushka belong?” asks Hong. “That’s a story to be told.”

Such answers fall to Garner, who treats the matter both philosophically and literally: “We put him in an environment where you could see promise. It’s an open field that this traveling show comes to. It’s gritty, it’s haunting, it’s gorgeous.”

BalletX and ensemble 132 perform “Petrushka,” Jan. 8, 9, 7.30 p.m., Perelman Theater, 300 S. Broad St. Tickets are sold out but there is a waitlist. boxoffice@pcmsconcerts.org, 215-569-8080, pcmsconcerts.org