NYCBallet Announces 2019-20 Season

New York City Ballet will open its 2019-20 Season at Lincoln Center on Tuesday, September 17 with George Balanchine's full-length Jewels. The season will continue with 21 weeks of performances, through Sunday, May 31, and will feature 54 ballets and choreography by 12 different choreographers.

The 2019-20 Season will also mark NYCB's first full season under the artistic leadership of Jonathan Stafford, Artistic Director, and Wendy Whelan, Associate Artistic Director. The season, which was planned prior to their appointments, was designed by Stafford and NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck while they were serving on the Company's interim artistic leadership team.

The New York City Ballet has more than 90 dancers and apprentices on its roster, as well as the 62-piece New York City Ballet Orchestra under the leadership of Music Director Andrew Litton.

Highlights of the season will include six world premiere ballets, including Fall Season premieres by Edwaard Liang, former NYCB Soloist and current Artistic Director of BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, and Lauren Lovette, current NYCB Principal Dancer, who will make her third ballet for the Company. The Winter Season will feature premieres by Alexei Ratmansky, who will make his sixth work for NYCB, and a new work by NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck, which will be set to a commissioned score by composer Nico Muhly. The Spring Season will feature world premiere ballets by Pam Tanowitz, who will make her second work for NYCB, and a premiere by Jamar Roberts, a choreographer and dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who will be making his first work for NYCB.

The 2019-20 Season will begin with a four-week Fall Season that will open on Tuesday, September 17 with George Balanchine's full-length Jewels, which will be given five performances. The Company's annual Fall Fashion Gala will take place on Thursday, September 26, and will feature premieres by Lauren Lovette and Edwaard Liang, as well as Balanchine's Symphony in C. (The designers who will create the costumes for the Lovette and Liang premieres will be announced at a later date.)

The Fall Season will also include Merce Cunningham's Summerspace, created in 1958 and first performed by NYCB in 1966. Summerspace, which NYCB has not performed since 2000, will be danced during the Fall Season as part of the centennial celebrations in honor of the 100th anniversary of Cunningham's birth (April 16, 1919), and the ballet will share a program with Balanchine's Serenade and Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2. Other Balanchine works featured in the Fall Season repertory include Raymonda Variations, Valse Fantaisie, Variations pour une Porte et un Soupir, and Union Jack, which was created in 1976 and has only been performed by NYCB. The Fall Season will also include Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering and Opus 19/The Dreamer; and Peck's Everywhere We Go.

The Fall Season will also mark the NYCB debut of the Company's new soloist, Jovani Furlan. Originally from Joinville, Brazil, Furlan trained at The Bolshoi Theater School in Brazil and Miami City Ballet's school, joined MCB in 2012, and rose through the ranks to be promoted to MCB principal dancer in 2017. His repertory with MCB includes numerous works by Balanchine, Robbins, Peck, Ratmansky, and Wheeldon, among other choreographers.

The year of performances will continue with NYCB's annual holiday engagement of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker , which will take place from November 29, 2019 through January 5, 2020.

The six-week Winter Season will open on Tuesday, January 21 with nine all Balanchine performances consisting of two different programs. The first, an all Balanchine/Stravinsky program, will feature Danses Concertantes, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto; the second all Balanchine program will feature Allegro Brillante, La Source, and Firebird.

The Winter Season will be highlighted by two world premiere ballets, the first by Alexei Ratmansky, American Ballet Theatre's Artist in Residence, which will take place on Thursday, January 30 as part of the Company's annual New Combinations Evening. The new Ratmansky ballet will be the choreographer's sixth work for NYCB and will be performed on a program with Christopher Wheeldon's Polyphonia and Justin Peck's new work from the 2019 Spring Season. The second premiere of the Winter Season will be a new work by Peck set to a commissioned score by composer Nico Muhly, which will debut on Wednesday, February 26 on a program with Jerome Robbins' In G Major, and Wheeldon's DGV: Danse Grande Vitesse.

Other highlights of the Winter Season will include a restoration of the Variations solo from George Balanchine's Episodes, which was created in 1959 for the legendary dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor. Taylor was then a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, which collaborated with NYCB on the original production of Episodes. NYCB last performed this section of the ballet in 1989, and will perform it as part of the Winter Season in tribute to Taylor, who passed away last year. Episodes will be performed on a program with Balanchine's Haieff Divertimento, last performed by NYCB in 1994; Robbins' Concertino, last performed by NYCB in 2006; and Peck's Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes.

The Winter Season will also include eleven performances, from February 14 through 23, of Peter Martins' full-length production of Swan Lake, which features sets and costumes by the acclaimed Danish artist Per Kirkeby and lighting by NYCB's Director of Lighting Mark Stanley.

The six-week 2020 Spring Season will open on Tuesday, April 21 and be highlighted by four special programs featuring ballets that have been made during this century by choreographers: Edwaard Liang, Lauren Lovette, Justin Peck, Gianna Reisen, Alexei Ratmansky, Jamar Roberts, Christopher Wheeldon, and Pam Tanowitz, who will create a world premiere ballet, her second for NYCB, that will premiere on Friday, April 24.

The second world premiere of the Spring Season will debut at the Company's annual Spring Gala performance on Thursday, May 7, and will be created by Roberts, a dancer and choreographer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater who will be making his first-ever work for NYCB. The Spring Gala performance will also include Balanchine's Sylvia: Pas de Deux and The Four Temperaments.

The Spring Season will also include four All Balanchine programs, the first consisting of Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la F e,' Rubies, and La Valse; the second consisting of Donizetti Variations and Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2; the third consisting of Concerto Barocco, Kammermusik No. 2, and Vienna Waltzes, and the fourth consisting of the full-length A Midsummer Night's Dream, which will close the spring season with a week of performances from May 26 through 31. The season will also include an All Balanchine/Robbins program consisting of Balanchine's Sylvia: Pas De Deux and The Four Temperaments, and Robbins' Piano Pieces, which was last performed in 2008.

All performances will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which is located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue. Subscription tickets for the 2019-20 Season will be available beginning April 1, single tickets for repertory performances will go on sale on August 4 at noon, and single tickets for performances of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker will go on sale in September. Tickets will be available online at nycballet.com, by phone at 212-496-0600, or in person at the David H. Koch Theater Box Office.

2019-20 SEASON WORLD PREMIERE BALLETS

Lauren Lovette World Premiere September 26, 2019 (Fall Gala)

Lauren Lovette, a Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet, has choreographed two works for NYCB, For Clara (2016) and Not Our Fate (2017), as well as works for the ABT Studio Company and the Vail International Dance Festival.

Born in Thousand Oaks, California, Lovette began studying ballet at the age of 11 locally at California Dance Theatre, and received additional training at the Cary Ballet Conservatory in Cary, North Carolina. She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, in the summers of 2004 and 2005, and enrolled at SAB as a full-time student in 2006. She became a member of the NYCB corps de ballet in 2010, was promoted to Soloist in 2013, and became a Principal Dancer in 2015.

Lovette has danced featured roles in ballets by George Balanchine, August Bournonville, Kim Brandstrup, Peter Martins, Justin Peck, Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, in addition to originating featured roles in works by Warren Carlyle, Pontus Lidberg, Martins, JR, Benjamin Millepied, Peck, Gianna Reisen, and Susan Stroman. In addition to her work as a dancer, Lovette began choreographing while a student at SAB where she participated in the School's annual choreography workshops in 2008 and 2009. In the summer of 2010, Lovette also participated in a working session of the New York Choreographic Institute. In the fall of 2018, she was the recipient of the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance from NYU's Center for Ballet and the Arts.

Edwaard Liang World Premiere September 26, 2019 (Fall Gala)

Edwaard Liang is the Artistic Director of BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, and a former dancer with New York City Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater. Over the last decade, he has created work for the Bolshoi Ballet, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Maryinsky Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Shanghai Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, and Washington Ballet.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan and raised in Marin County, California, Liang began his dance training at age five with Marin Ballet. After studying at the School of American Ballet, he joined New York City Ballet in 1993. That same year, he was a medal winner at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition and also won the Mae L. Wien Award. By 1998, he was promoted to soloist. In 2001, Mr. Liang joined the Tony Award-winning Broadway cast of Fosse. In 2002, Mr. Liang was invited by Ji Kyli n to become a member of the acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater.

While dancing with NDT, Mr. Liang discovered his passion and love for choreography. Since establishing himself as a choreographer, his works have been performed by dance companies around the world and he has won numerous awards for his choreography including the 2006 National Choreographic Competition. In 2005, NYCB presented Liang's ballet Distant Cries, which was originally created for Peter Boal and Company and performed by Wendy Whelan and Peter Boal.

In 2013, Mr. Liang was named Artistic Director at BalletMet where he continues to choreograph new works for companies both domestically and abroad. In 2017, he received an Emmy Award for his short dance film, Vaulted. In 2018, he created a new ballet with Roberto Bolle for the opening of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Alexei Ratmansky World Premiere January 30, 2020

Alexei Ratmansky, the Artist in Residence at American Ballet Theatre, is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest choreographers of his generation. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow, he was a principal dancer with the Ukrainian National Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet before joining the Royal Danish Ballet in 1997. In January 2004, he returned to Russia to assume the position of Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet. In 2009, Ratmansky was named Artist in Residence at American Ballet Theatre.

Among Ratmansky's works are Cinderella and Middle Duet for the Mariinsky Ballet; The Bright Stream and Lost Illusions for the Bolshoi Ballet; Psych for the Paris Opera Ballet; 24 Preludes for The Royal Ballet; Swan Lake for the Zurich Ballet; and Harlequinade, Serenade after Plato's Symposium, The Sleeping Beauty, Songs of Bukovina, and Whipped Cream for ABT. Ratmansky received the Benois de la Danse award for his full-length Anna Karenina, created for the Royal Danish Ballet, in 2005. He was made a Knight of Dannebrog in Denmark in 2001, and was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow for 2013.