NYCB Launches New York City Ballet Moves, Debuts 7/31

Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief of the New York City Ballet, announced today that the Company will launch a new performance group called New York City Ballet Moves during the summer of 2011. Consisting of a small group of artists from the full company, New York City Ballet Moves will provide an opportunity to showcase NYCB's dancers and repertory in venues that might not be able to present the full company for financial or technical reasons. Martins will select a rotating group of performers from NYCB's roster of dancers and musicians to participate in the group's engagements.

New York City Ballet Moves will make its formal debut at the Vail International Arts Festival, July 31 through August 2, followed by performances in Jackson, Wyoming, August 5 through 7.

In making the announcement Martins emphasized that while The New Group will consist of fewer dancers than the full company, it will be made up of a mix of principals, soloists, and members of the NYCB corps, and is not intended to serve as a Second Company or training group for students or apprentices. The ballets programmed by New York City Ballet Moves will be derived from NYCB's vast repertory, and will be performed to live music played by instrumentalists, primarily from the New York City Ballet Orchestra. In addition, on occasion new work may also be commissioned specifically for this group

"Pursuing an initiative like this has been a dream of mine for a long time," said Martins. "I am thrilled that we will be able to bring works from our extraordinary repertory, performed by some of our leading dancers and musicians, to communities where we are not generally seen."

NYCB Executive Director Kathy Brown said New York City Ballet Moves would pursue engagements in both the U.S. and abroad during weeks when the full company is not rehearsing or performing, and added that the idea of a touring with a smaller group of artists was tested during the summer of 2010 when 17 NYCB dancers and musicians took part in a week-long residency at the Center for the Arts in Jackson, Wyoming.

"Last summer's engagement in Jackson was a huge success, with three sold-out performances, master classes and open rehearsals attended by many people experiencing NYCB's repertory and dancers for the very first time. We are confident that New York City Ballet Moves will provide a very effective vehicle to address our goal of making our artists and ballets accessible to audiences around the world," said Brown. "The audiences will have the same high quality experience they would have at our home theater at Lincoln Center, with a program particularly well-suited to a smaller ensemble of performers."

New York City Ballet Moves will give its first performances on July 31 and August 1 as part of the 2001 Vail International Dance Festival, which is under the artistic direction of former NYCB principal dancer Damian Woetzel. The festival is presented by the Vail Valley Foundation, and the performances on July 31 and August 1 will take place at Vail's Ford Amphitheater. In addition, on August 2 at the Vilar Auditorium, New York City Ballet Moves will present a special one-time-only UpClose program called "The Male Dancer - By Balanchine," which will feature more than one dozen male solos from such Balanchine classics as Apollo, Prodigal Son, Square Dance, Theme and Variations, Agon, and Harlequinade.

Following the engagement in Vail, New York City Ballet Moves will return to Jackson, Wyoming for four performances, August 5 through 7, at the Center for the Arts, presented by Jackson's Dancers' Workshop.

The repertory for the inaugural season of New York City Ballet Moves will include George Balanchine's Duo Concertant, Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering, Peter Martins' A Fool for You, Hallelujah Junction and Zakouski, and Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain pas de deux, and Polyphonia.

The roster of dancers for the inaugural season will feature NYCB Principal Dancers Jared Angle, Joaquin De Luz, Robert Fairchild, Sterling Hyltin, Maria Kowroski, Tiler Peck, Amar Ramasar, Daniel Ulbricht and Wendy Whelan; Soloists Adrian Danchig-Waring, Erica Pereira, and Rebecca Krohn; and corps de ballet members Chase Finlay, Anthony Huxley, Lauren Lovette, Brittany Pollack, and Taylor Stanley,