NYCB Festival of New Choreography

For the conclusion of its five-week, 2020 digital fall season, New York City Ballet (NYCB) will present a Festival of New Choreography featuring five World Premiere films, one launching each night from Tuesday, October 27 through Saturday, October 31.

The first four premieres were choreographed by Sidra Bell, Andrea Miller, Jamar Roberts, and Pam Tanowitz and feature NYCB dancers performing on the campus of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The works by Bell, Roberts, and Tanowitz will also feature music performed and recorded by members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra. The finale of the festival will be a film directed and choreographed by NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck, set to a new version of songwriter and composer Chris Thile’s Thank You, New York, that has been created especially for the occasion. Peck’s work will feature four NYCB dancers filmed at several locations around New York City, with cinematography by Jody Lee Lipes, who directed Ballet 422, the 2014 documentary film about Peck and his work with NYCB.

The films will be released at 8:00pm each evening and will be available free-of-charge on NYCB’s YouTube channel, Facebook page, and website. Each premiere will be followed by a discussion featuring the choreographers and some of the other artists who participated in the making of the pieces.

And, don’t miss this week’s programming! “21^st Century Voices” premieres on Tuesday, October 20, at 8:00pm and features excerpts from the following ballets: Everywhere We Go, Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes, and Year of the Rabbit by NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck; Pictures at an Exhibition and Russian Seasons by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, and Mercurial Manoeuvres and Polyphonia by former NYCB Resident Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. And, on Saturday, October 24, at 2:00pm, NYCB will release its second and last family-friendly matinee program of the season, which includes the opening of Robbins’ Fanfare, Balanchine’s The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and two excerpts from Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Click here for more information on NYCB’s Digital Fall Season and the Festival of New Choreography.

Photo credit: New York City Ballet