One of the world’s premier dance companies, New York City Ballet, will return to The Music Center June 24 through June 28 after over 20-years. The company will present two programs with a roster of company dancers and repertory that showcase the company’s storied legacy. Both programs feature recorded music and live performances by the New York City Ballet Orchestra.
Rooted in founder George Balanchine’s revolutionary choreography, NYCB has shaped the ballet canon for over 75 years with its masterpieces by Balanchine and New York City Ballet Co-Founding Choreographer Jerome Robbins along with groundbreaking contemporary works by Ulysses Dove, Justin Peck, Tiler Peck, Gianna Reisen and Christopher Wheeldon.
Program A includes 4 pieces – Signs, Red Angels, A Suite of Dances, and The Times Are Racing – and runs for about two hours with two 20-minute intermissions.
A contemporary ballet set to the music of Philip Glass, Signs is a highly athletic and introspective piece for 10 dancers.
The dynamically charged, abstract work Red Angels highlights the power and athleticism of its four dancers with bold choreography and intense lighting.
A Suite of Dances, performed with an onstage cellist, is both a witty and pensive tour de force for its solo male dancer.
Dubbed a “sneaker ballet,” The Times Are Racing is a hyper-modern ballet that merges classical ballet technique with tap, hip-hop, and street dancing in a high-energy performance in sneakers and streetwear.
Program B also includes four pieces – Concerto Barocco, Allegro Brillante, This Bitter Earth, Concerto for Two Pianos – and has a run time of approximately one hour and 50 minutes with two 20-minute intermissions.
One of Balanchine’s greatest masterpieces, Concerto Barocco is music made visual as two elegant lead ballerinas depict a piano.
An expression of Russian romanticism, Allegro Brillante is one of George Balanchine’s most joyous, pure dance pieces set to Tschaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 3 that the composer created from sketches for a composition that was intended to be his Sixth Symphony.
This Bitter Earth is a breathtaking, poetic pas de deux set to the haunting, tenuous melodies of a remix of Dinah Washington’s soulful rendition of This Bitter Earth and Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight.
Concerto for Two Solo Pianos is a ballet for three soloists with twelve female dances set to Stravinsky’s music and performed with two onstage pianos. Its complex, percussive arrangement is played out with intricate steps and partnering by its lead dancers in a modern, edgy style. The central female dancer in white is pulled between its two male dancers, one in red the other in black representing a piano theme that unites in a final pas de trois.
The Sunday June 28 will feature a Dance Talk at 1:15 pm by The Music Center’s President & CEO Rachel S. Moore offering insights into the programming.
For more information and tickets, please visit https://www.musiccenter.org/
