NYCBallet Announces 2019 Fall Fashion Gala

On September 26, 2019 New York City Ballet will present its annual Fall Fashion Gala, celebrating choreography and costume design with two world premiere works showcasing some of today's most exciting artists from the worlds of dance and fashion.

For the Company's eighth edition of the Fall Fashion Gala, Edwaard Liang, Artistic Director of BalletMet and a former dancer with NYCB and Nederlands Dans Theater, will create his first original work for NYCB, featuring costumes designed by beloved fashion icon Anna Sui. The music for the Liang premiere will be an untitled new work for solo violin and orchestra by composer Oliver Davis, which will debut at the Fall Gala performance. The second world premiere will be choreographed by New York City Ballet Principal Dancer and choreographer Lauren Lovette. Her third work for NYCB, the new Lovette premiere will be set to Tan Dun's "Fire Ritual" for solo violin and orchestra, and will feature costumes by acclaimed New York fashion designer Zac Posen. The evening will also include a performance of George Balanchine's Symphony in C, a pillar of New York City Ballet's repertory since 1948, set to music by Georges Bizet and featuring costumes redesigned in 2012 by NYCB Director of Costumes Marc Happel. All three works on the gala program will feature lighting designed by NYCB Resident Lighting Designer Mark Stanley.

Conceived by NYCB Board Vice Chair Sarah Jessica Parker, and launched in 2012 with a gala celebration of the legendary designer Valentino, NYCB's Fall Fashion Gala has since featured costumes designed by Virgil Abloh of Off-WhiteTM, Rosie Assoulin, Thom Browne, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, Tsumori Chisato, Peter Copping for Oscar de la Renta, Giles Deacon, Alberta Ferretti, Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim of MONSE and Oscar de la Renta, Prabal Gurung, Carolina Herrera, Mary Katrantzou, Humberto Leon of Opening Ceremony and Kenzo, Hanako Maeda of ADEAM, Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida of Marques'Almeida, Zuhair Murad, Gareth Pugh, Narciso Rodriguez, Jonathan Saunders, Olivier Theyskens, Iris van Herpen, Dries Van Noten, and Jason Wu, who have designed costumes for works by choreographers Kyle Abraham, Robert Binet, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Lauren Lovette, Peter Martins, Benjamin Millepied, Matthew Neenan, Justin Peck, Angelin Preljocaj, Gianna Reisen, Liam Scarlett, Troy Schumacher, Myles Thatcher, Peter Walker, and Christopher Wheeldon. All of the designs have been created in house at the New York City Ballet Costume Shop in collaboration with the designers and NYCB's Director of Costumes Marc Happel.

Since the inception of the first Fall Fashion Gala in 2012, the annual event has raised more than $17 million for New York City Ballet. The Chairs for the eighth edition of the event will include Parker and co-chairs Mazdack Rassi, Zanna Roberts Rassi, Kelly Ripa, and Lizzie Tisch. The 2019 Fall Gala is generously sponsored by BNY Mellon.

World Premiere by Edwaard Liang Costumes Designed by Anna Sui

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 NYCB in 1993. That same year, he was a medal winner at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition and also won SAB's Mae L. Wien Award. By 1998, he was promoted toNYCB Soloist. In 2001, Liang joined the Tony Award-winning Broadway cast of Fosse. In 2002, Liang was invited by Jir?i? Kylia?n to become a member of the acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater. While dancing with NDT, 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, Liang was named Artistic Director at BalletMet, and 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.

The costumes for Liang's 2019 Fall Gala premiere will be created by one of New York's most beloved and accomplished fashion icons, Anna Sui, who has a worldwide cult following that looks to her each season for her ironic mixes of romantic nostalgia and rock-and-roll glam. Born in Detroit, Anna Sui attended Parsons School of Design, where she joined New York's intensely creative cultural underground, forging important relationships in the worlds of fashion, photography, art, music, and design. Sui styled fashion shoots with her friend, the photographer Steven Meisel, and designed for several sportswear companies before launching her own brand in 1981. Sui's business continued to grow throughout the 1980s, and in 1991 with the help of her friends Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, she premiered her first runway show. The Anna Sui line also includes very popular fragrance and cosmetic ranges. The World of Anna Sui, a retrospective exhibition of Sui's work that debuted at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London in the summer of 2017, will open at the Museum of Art and Design in New York on September 12, 2019 and run through February 23, 2020.

World Premiere by Lauren Lovette Costumes Designed by Zac Posen

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, before training at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, starting in 2004. 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 as 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.

The costumes for Lovette's Fall Gala premiere will be designed by Zac Posen. Raised in New York, Posen attended London's Central Saint Martins University in the womenswear degree program. Posen launched his eponymous collection in 2001, with a vision for modern American glamour that married couture technique with striking innovation. In fall 2014, Posen was announced as Creative Director for the Brooks Brothers signature women's collection and accessories. Today, Posen is known globally for his technique in artisanal craftsmanship, anatomical construction, and textile manipulation. His daywear, suiting, and red-carpet eveningwear are infused with his bold sophistication, sexy femininity, and distinctive glamour. Worn by leading women, including Uma Thurman, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, Claire Danes, and Rihanna, he has become a staple on the red carpet. His collections have grown to include Zac Posen, ZAC Zac Posen, accessories, eyewear, and fine jewelry. Posen served as a judge with Heidi Klum and Nina Garcia on Project Runway for six years. The documentary, House of Z, chronicling Posen's career, premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival in April 2017, and is currently available on Netflix. Posen's latest project, a cookbook entitled Cooking with Zac, is currently available worldwide. Posen was awarded one of fashion's most prestigious honors, Swarovski's The Perry Ellis Award for Women's wear by the CFDA in 2004, and in 2015, Posen was awarded Designer of the Year by Women's Wear Daily and Variety Magazine.

Fall Gala Tickets

Benefit-priced tickets for the gala evening, which include the 7 p.m. performance, a pre-performance reception, and black-tie supper ball following the performance, are available through the NYCB Special Events Office at 212-870-5585 and at nycballet.com/fallgala. Tickets for the performance only start at $35 and will be available starting on August 4, 2019 at nycballet.com, by calling 212-496-0600, or at the David H. Koch Theater box office, located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue.

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