In classical dance, it’s British choreographers who pioneered ballets on unsavory subjects, beginning with Antony Tudor’s 1945 study of a serial murderer, Undertow. Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon (1974) has a third act full of squalor, and his Mayerling (1978) is the story of a dissolute, drug-addicted royal. Helen Pickett is not a Brit but an American who studied ballet on the West Coast and then danced with William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet. She’s also been a member of New York City’s experimental Wooster Group. In 2005, Pickett began her career as a choreographer focused on narrative ballets. This fall, on October 30, Pickett’s Crime and Punishment receives its world premiere at American Ballet Theatre. Unsavory, indeed, is Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1866 story of poverty, murder, and madness. Everything isn’t beautiful at the ballet. But there is redemption in the end (even if does take place in Siberia). The ballet features music by Isobel Waller-Bridge, sets and costumes by Soutra Gilmour, lighting design by Jennifer Tipton, and video design by Tal Yarden. —Laura Jacobs