New York City Ballet 2024 Spring Season To Include Works From Balanchine And More

New York City Ballet's 75th anniversary celebration will continue with the 2024 Spring Season which will open on Tuesday, April 23 and conclude with a week-long run, May 28 through June 2, of Balanchine's full-length production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  

The first performance of the six-week Spring Season will be a program of works by NYCB Co-Founder George Balanchine, including a major revival of a work originally titled Tzigane, after the name of Maurice Ravel's rhapsodic score, which is being revived by NYCB for the first time in more than 30 years with a new name – Errante.  

The work was choreographed by Balanchine for the legendary ballerina Suzanne Farrell for the 1975 Ravel Festival, and for this spring's revival Farrell will return to the Company to stage the work for a new generation of NYCB dancers.  Balanchine's Bourrée Fantasque, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and Symphony in C will complete the opening night program.   

In Ravel's time, Tzigane did not strictly refer to the Roma people, but now it carries negative meanings.  After consulting with Farrell, The George Balanchine Trust, and NYCB, the name of the ballet was changed.  Farrell, holding the rights, adopted Errante, meaning wandering, a title Balanchine once used for a 1933, now lost ballet.  

The opening week of the Spring Season will also feature a program consisting of the 75th Anniversary Season's first performances of Balanchine's Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet and NYCB's Co-Founding Choreographer Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering, two classics from the NYCB repertory created in 1966 and 1969 respectively.

Spring Gala – Thursday, May 2

The Company's annual Spring Gala performance on Thursday, May 2 will feature World Premiere ballets by New York-based choreographer Amy Hall Garner and NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck. The Gala program will also feature Balanchine's Rubies, the second section of the full-length Jewels which is set to Igor Stravinsky's Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra.

Garner's premiere, which will be her first work created for NYCB, will be set to selections of music by five composers: Jonathan Dove, Michael Zev Gordon, William Grant Still, Ottorino Respighi, and Aldemaro Romero.  Scenery and lighting will be designed by NYCB Resident Lighting Designer Mark Stanley with costumes designed by NYCB Director of Costumes Marc Happel. 

Peck's ballet, a pas de deux created for NYCB Principal Dancers Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia, is set to a string quartet inspired by the music of James Brown called Dig the Say, which was written by the award-winning composer Vijay Iyer in 2012.  For all 2024 Spring Season performances of the ballet, which will also be called Dig the Say, the score will be performed by PUBLIQuartet, the multi-Grammy nominated string quartet that was founded in New York City in 2010.  Designers for Dig the Say will include frequent Peck collaborators Brandon Stirling Baker (scenery and lighting) and Humberto Leon (costumes).  

NYCB's 2024 Spring Gala will be chaired by Maria-Cristina Anzola and Lynn Good.  The evening will begin with a 5:30pm cocktail reception hosted by Ruinart Champagne, followed by the 7pm performance, and concluding with a black-tie dinner and dancing on the theater's Promenade. The decor for the gala evening is being designed by Bronson Van Wyck and Van Wyck & Van Wyck, the internationally-renowned event design and production firm headquartered in New York City. For more information about NYCB's 2024 Spring Gala visit nycballet.com/springgala.

NYCB's 2024 Spring Season will offer further exploration of the evolution and future of the NYCB repertory with 12 contemporary works created between 1993 and 2022:  William Forsythe's Herman Schmerman Pas de Deux; Ulysses Dove's Red Angels, Christopher Wheeldon's Scènes de Ballet and This Bitter Earth; Justin Peck's In Creases, Year of the Rabbit, and Pulcinella Variations; Alexei Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition; Pam Tanowitz's Law of Mosaics and Gustave le Gray No.1; Kyle Abraham's Love Letter (on shuffle); and Gianna Reisen's Play Time.  

Additional Balanchine and Robbins repertory for the Spring Season will include Robbins' Glass Pieces, Interplay, and Other Dances; and Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements. 

Guest Artists

During New York City Ballet's 75th Anniversary Season, the Company has invited a number of guest artists from American ballet companies with close ties to NYCB to perform with the Company as part of the anniversary year.  

The 2024 Spring Season will feature Gillian Murphy and Aran Bell, both Principal Dancers with American Ballet Theatre, who will perform Robbins' Other Dances on Sunday, May 26 at 3pm.  ABT and NYCB both make their homes in New York City and over the years a number of dancers and other artists have worked with both companies, including Robbins, who danced and choreographed for ABT before joining NYCB as associate artistic director in 1949.  Robbins created Other Dances for dancers Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov while they were both dancers with ABT in 1976.  

During the final week of the season Miami City Ballet's First Soloist Taylor Naturkas and Soloist Brooks Landegger will perform the Divertissement in the second act of Balanchine's full-length production of A Midsummer Night's Dream on Friday, May 31 at 8pm and Saturday, June 1 at 2pm.  Miami City Ballet has been under the artistic direction of former NYCB Principal Dancer Lourdes Lopez since 2012, and when the company was founded in 1985, former NYCB Principal Dancer Edward Villella served as its founding artistic director.

Spring Season Exhibition – Excellence and Innovation:  New York City Ballet at 75

 

Throughout the 2024 Spring Season, an exhibition titled Excellence and Innovation:  New York City Ballet at 75 will be on display on the David H. Koch Theater's Promenade during all performances. Curated by Thomas Mellins, the exhibition will document NYCB's kaleidoscopic output since its founding through a sampling of images of the Company's artists and repertory, interspersed with quotes from Company founders and text panels that outline a number of foundational themes, such as Tradition, Musicality, Collaboration, and Reach.  Designed to be viewed before and during the intermissions of NYCB performances, the exhibition will also be on display during open hours at the David H. Koch Theater, free to the public and open for all, from Saturday, May 25 to Friday, May 31.  Theater hours for the exhibition will be from 10am to noon on Saturday, May 25, Sunday, May 26, and Tuesday, May 28; and from 10am to 5pm all other weekdays.

Mellins is an exhibition curator, author, and educator with a focus on New York City history, and previously worked with NYCB to curate In this House: New York City Ballet and the David H. Koch Theater, for the 50th anniversary of the theater's opening.  He has also created exhibitions for other important New York-based cultural and civic institutions including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Museum of the City of New York, Trinity Church Wall Street, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, among many others.  In 2011 Mellins curated The New York Public Library: Celebrating 100 Years which attracted more than 800,000 visitors and was the most heavily attended exhibition in the library's history.  As an author, Mellins has written several books, including co-authoring, with Robert A.M. Stern and others, three volumes of an award-winning book series on the architecture and urbanism of New York City.  In 1999 Mellins was designated a Centennial Historian of New York City.  

75th Anniversary Touring Engagements

Following the 2024 Spring Season at Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet will conclude its 75th anniversary year with three touring engagements.  

The first, at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, will feature seven performances of Balanchine’s full-length Jewels (June 4 through 9).  The Company will next appear in Saratoga Springs, New York for its annual summer residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (July 9 through 13).  Repertory for the Saratoga season will include works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Justin Peck, Ulysses Dove, Amy Hall Garner, and Pam Tanowitz.

For the final performances of the 75th anniversary year, NYCB will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark, for seven performances at the Tivoli Concert Hall (August 14 through 18), with two programs featuring works by NYCB’s Co-Founding Choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and current and former Resident Choreographers Justin Peck and Christopher Wheeldon.  The first program will include Balanchine’s Serenade and Stravinsky Violin Concerto, and Peck’s Pulcinella Variations; the second program will feature Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante and Rubies, Robbins’ Fancy Free, and Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth. 

Ticket Sales

All performances in New York City will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which is located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue.  Tickets are currently available online at nycballet.com, by phone at 212-496-0600, or in person at the David H. Koch Theater box office.  All programs and casting are subject to change.  For complete program information visit nycballet.com.

2024 Spring Season – World Premiere Ballets

Amy Hall GARNER – Thursday, May 2, 2024

Amy Hall Garner is an internationally-known choreographer based in New York City creating works in the ballet, modern, and theatrical genres. She is a native of Huntsville, Alabama, and a graduate of The Juilliard School. Her work has been commissioned by numerous dance companies and organizations including Miami City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, BalletX, Ailey II, ABT Studio Company, Collage Dance Collective, Works & Process at the Guggenheim Museum, The Juilliard School, and The Ailey School, and she recently created a new children’s ballet for The Joffrey Ballet. Currently she is the resident choreographer at Carolina Ballet. 

Garner personally coached Grammy Award-winner Beyoncé, providing additional choreography for The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. Her theatrical choreography credits include The Color Purple (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Choir Boy (Yale Repertory Theatre), and Dreamgirls (Paramount Theatre). In 2018, she was selected to participate in Alvin Ailey’s New Directions Choreography Lab supported by the Ford Foundation. Garner was one of the first recipients of the Joffrey Ballet’s Choreographer of Color Award (now titled Winning Works) and named a 2021 Toulmin Fellow through the Center for Ballet and the Arts–National Sawdust Partnership.

Justin Peck – Thursday, May 2, 2024

Justin Peck is the Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor of New York City Ballet. He has created more than 50 works for NYCB and other dance companies around the world, including the Paris Opéra Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, L.A. Dance Project, and The Juilliard School. His works have also been performed by Dutch National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Acosta Danza, and Hong Kong Ballet, among other companies. A native of San Diego, California, Peck studied at California Ballet before enrolling at the School of American Ballet in 2003. He joined NYCB as a dancer in 2007 and was promoted to Soloist in 2013. Peck first choreographed as a student at SAB in 2005. He participated in a working session at the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB, in the fall of 2009, and received NYCI’s first year-long choreographic residency in 2011. He was named NYCB’s Resident Choreographer, the second in the Company’s history, in July 2014, and was also appointed as Artistic Advisor in February 2019. Peck retired from dancing following NYCB’s 2019 Spring Season. 

Peck was the subject of the 2014 documentary Ballet 422, which followed him for two months as he created NYCB’s 422nd original ballet, Paz de la Jolla. In 2015, his ballet Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes won the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production and he is also the recipient of the 2018 Ted Arison Young Artist Award. Peck won a 2018 Tony Award for his choreography for the Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, and he is the choreographer of Steven Spielberg’s award-winning film adaptation of West Side Story and Bradley Cooper’s film Maestro.  He is the director and choreographer of Illinoise, a new musical based on Sufjan Steven’s album Illinois, which will open on Broadway at the St. James Theater in April 2024.  

2024 Spring Season Education Programs

Sensory Friendly Performance, Sunday, May 19 at 11am

On Sunday, May 19 NYCB will present a specially-curated, sensory-friendly performance, designed to provide a comfortable and inclusive environment where individuals with sensory processing challenges, including autism, can experience a ballet performance.  Slight modifications will include a relaxed entry and exit policy, adjustments to lighting and sound levels, designated break areas throughout the theater, additional event staffing to assist with audience needs, and pre-visit resources.  This one-time-only performance will feature Christopher Wheeldon’s Scènes de Ballet, featuring 64 students from the School of American Ballet, and Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces, set to a score by composer Philip Glass.  Tickets start at $32.  For tickets and additional information visit:  nycballet.com/sensoryfriendly.

Public Programs for All Audiences

This spring New York City Ballet will also present a series of public programs for children, teens, and adults designed to give audiences a closer look at the Company’s repertory and artists.  

These programs will include a special Inside NYCB presentation on Monday, May 13 from 6:30-7:30pm at the David H. Koch Theater.  Hosted by NYCB Associate Artistic Director, Wendy Whelan, the program will explore the “Future of NYCB,” featuring excerpts from an array of contemporary ballets by some of today’s most renowned choreographers, with NYCB artists sharing perspectives on these works and their place in the Company’s unparalleled repertory.

On Saturday, June 1 at 11am the Company will present a Family Saturdays program hosted by NYCB Principal Dancer Megan Fairchild, who is the Creative Director for NYCB’s Family Saturdays programming.  For this presentation Fairchild will explore Balanchine’s beloved ballet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  The one-hour interactive presentation is designed especially for families with children ages 5 and older and will feature the Company’s dancers and members of the NYCB Orchestra at the David H. Koch Theater.  

The season will also include a series of in-person Movement Workshops held in NYCB’s rehearsal studios at Lincoln Center.  These will include:

• Children’s Workshops for children ages 5 to 7 on Sunday, May 5 from 1:30-2:15pm and Saturday, June 1 from 12:30-1:15pm.
• In Motion workshop for children ages 8 to 12 on Saturday, May 11 from 12:30-1:15pm.
• Ballet Essentials workshops for teens and adults on Saturday, May 11 from 10:30-11:45am and Monday, May 20 from 6:30-7:45pm.
• Ballet Essentials Legacy workshop in honor of NYCB’s 75th Anniversary for teens and adults with beginner to advanced beginner ballet experience on Monday, May 6 from 6:30-8:00pm, led by former NYCB Principal Dancer and current Repertory Director, Gonzalo Garcia.
• Children’s Access Workshop for children with disabilities ages 4 to 12 on Saturday, May 11 from 11:00am-12:00pm.
• Access Workshop for Teens and Adults with disabilities on Sunday, May 5 from 12:00-1:15pm.
• Autism-Friendly Access Workshops for children ages 4 to 12 on Sunday, May 5 from 10:00-11:00am and Saturday, May 18 from 1:00-2:00pm.

For tickets and additional information for all NYCB educational programs visit:  nycballet.com/educate.