New York City Ballet Announces 2018/2019 Season; Tribute To Jerome Robbins And More!

New York City Ballet's 2018 Spring Season opens on Tuesday, April 24 and will continue for six weeks through June 3. The centerpiece of the Spring Season will be Robbins 100, a celebration of Jerome Robbins, NYCB's co-founding choreographer, whose remarkable contributions to the worlds of ballet and Broadway musical theater have made an indelible impression on both art forms. The three-week celebration will run from May 3 to May 20, featuring 20 works created by Robbins over the course of 40years, as well as two world premiere ballets in tribute to Robbins. Robbins 100 will open on Thursday, May 3 with a Spring Gala performance featuring Robbins'
Circus Polka (1972), The Four Seasons (1979), and A Suite of Dances (1994), as well as World Premieres by NYCB Resident Choreographer Justin Peck and Broadway director and choreographer Warren Carlyle.

Peck's Spring Gala premiere is inspired by Robbins and set to Leonard Bernstein's Prelude, Fugue and Riffs. The work honors the centennial of both Robbins and Bernstein, who collaborated on several works for both ballet and Broadway, and were both born in 1918. For his new work Peck will collaborate with artist Stephen Powers, the Philadelphia-born graffiti writer turned street artist, who will create the
ballet's backdrop. Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung will design the costumes and Brandon Stirling Baker will design the lighting.

The second World Premiere on the Spring Gala program will be Something To Dance About, a work by Tony Award-winning choreographer and director Warren Carlyle that pays tribute to Robbins' legendary Broadway career. Marking Carlyle's first-ever work for a ballet company, the piece will feature 30 NYCB dancers in a showcase of music and choreography from eight landmark Broadway musicals that Robbins was closely associated with during his storied career - On The Town (1944), Billion Dollar Baby (1945), The King and I (1954), Peter Pan (1954), West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Funny Girl (1964), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). Featuring excerpts of Robbins' original choreography, with direction and musical staging by Carlyle, the ballet will be set to music and lyrics from eight iconic scores written during Broadway's golden age by such artists as Leonard Bernstein, Jerry Bock, Betty Comden, Morton Gould, Adolph Green, Sheldon Harnick, Oscar Hammerstein II, Bob Merrill, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, and Richard Rodgers. In addition to Carlyle, the creative team for the ballet will be comprised of a number of award-winning Broadway veterans including Rob Berman (musical arrangements), Jonathan Tunick (orchestrations), Beowulf Boritt (scenery), Toni-Leslie James (costumes), and Mark Stanley (lighting). In addition to the May 3 Spring Gala performance, the Peck and Carlyle premieres will also be performed on Saturday, May 5 at 8 p.m.; Sunday, May 6 at 3 p.m.; Thursday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, May 12 at 2 p.m.; and Sunday, May 13 at 3 p.m.

The three-week Robbins 100 celebration will also include performances of Robbins' Fancy Free (1944), Interplay (1945), The Cage (1951), Afternoon of a Faun (1953), Fanfare (1953), The Concert (1956), Les Noces (1965), Dances at a Gathering (1969), In the Night (1970), The Goldberg Variations (1971), Dybbuk (1974), In G Major (1975), Other Dances (1976), Opus 19/The Dreamer (1979), Glass Pieces (1983), Antique Epigraphs (1984), and West Side Story Suite (1995).

In addition to the Robbins 100 repertory, the 2018 Spring Season will also include nine works by Balanchine, including seven performances of Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova's full-length production of Coppèlia on May 25 at 8 p.m.; May 26 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; May 27 at 3 p.m.; June 1 at 8 p.m.; and June 2 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The season will also include contemporary works by NYCB Principal Dancer Lauren Lovette, Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and NYCB corps de ballet member Peter Walker.

All performances will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue. Tickets start at $30 and are available at nycballet.com, by calling 212- 496-0600, or at the theater's box office. Benefit-priced tickets for the May 3 Spring Gala evening, which include the 7 p.m. performance, a pre-performance reception, and a black-tie supper ball, are available through the NYCB Special Events Office at 212-870-5585 or at nycballet.com/springgala