New York City Ballet has announced its winter 2005-2006 season, which runs from November 22 through February 26 at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. The season will begin with five weeks of performances of the holiday classic George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, followed by eight weeks of repertory performances, featuring 37 different ballets.
Among the highlights of the repertory season are two world premiere ballets. The first by Resident Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon will take place on Tuesday, January 24 as part of the New Combinations Evening, NYCB’s annual tribute to the anniversary of George Balanchine’s birth.
The second world premiere, by Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins, will take place on Friday, February 10. Presented in conjunction with the Juilliard School’s centennial celebration, the ballet will be set to a score by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Christopher Rouse that has been co-commissioned by New York City Ballet and Juilliard.
Also on the schedule is the return of the Company’s full-length Swan Lake staged by Peter Martins, as well as 16 works by Company co-founder George Balanchine and seven works by Jerome Robbins.
The winter 2005-2006 season will begin on Tuesday, November 22, with the Company’s annual Opening Night Benefit. The program for Opening Night will be announced at a later date.
This season New York City Ballet will also offer audiences two early curtain options each week, with all Tuesday and Wednesday evening repertory performances beginning at 7:30 p.m.
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™
This year New York City Ballet will present 45 performances of the holiday classic, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, from Friday, November 25 through Friday, December 30.
This production, which premiered on February 2, 1954 at the City Center of Music and Drama in New York, helped to establish The Nutcracker and its score as perennial favorites in the United States, and there are now countless productions of the ballet performed all over the country. NYCB’s beloved production is seen by more than 100,000 people annually, and has been performed more than 2000 times.
Set to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky’s glorious score, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ features choreography by Balanchine, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska, and lighting by Mark Stanley, after the original design by Ronald Bates. The production includes the Company’s entire roster of more than 150 dancers and musicians, as well as two alternating casts of 50 children from the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet.
Winter Repertory Season
The Company will open the winter 2006 repertory season on Tuesday, January 3 with a program of Concerto Barocco, Fearful Symmetries, and Symphony in C. Balanchine’s Symphony in C, which was on the first New York City Ballet program on October 11, 1948, is one of the Company’s signature works and will be performed eight times over the course of the season. The season will continue for eight weeks, through Sunday, February 26, with a total of 37 ballets performed on 56 programs.
Beginning Friday, January 6 the Company will present 12 performances of the full-length Swan Lake, staged by Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins (after Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and George Balanchine). This production was premiered by the Royal Danish Ballet on October 27, 1996, and first performed by New York City Ballet on April 29, 1999. It features costume and set designs by Danish painter Per Kirkeby, and is set to the beloved score by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky.
World Premiere Ballets
Other season highlights include world premiere ballets by Christopher Wheeldon and Peter Martins. The new Wheeldon ballet will premiere on Tuesday, January 24, as part of the New Combinations Evening, NYCB’s annual celebration of George Balanchine’s birthday (January 22, 1904). The evening will also include performances of Balanchine’s Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, and Symphony in C.
This will be the second ballet by Mr. Wheeldon that has premiered as part of the New Combinations Evening, the first being After the Rain, which premiered in 2005. The score for the new ballet will be announced at a later date.
Additional performances of the new Wheeldon ballet will take place on Thursday, January 26 at 8 p.m., Saturday, January 28 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, February 5 at 3 p.m.
The new ballet by Mr. Martins will premiere on Friday, February 10. In a unique collaboration, the score for the ballet is by Christopher Rouse and has been co-commissioned by New York City Ballet and the Juilliard School as part of Juilliard’s 100th anniversary celebration. In addition to the ballet by Mr. Martins, choreographer Adam Hougland, a graduate of the Juilliard School, will also create a ballet to the same score, which the Juilliard Dance Ensemble will premiere on Wednesday, February 22 at the Juilliard Theater.
One of America’s most prominent composers of orchestral music, Mr. Rouse is a member of the faculty of the Juilliard School, and won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1993. This score, entitled Friandises, is the first piece of music that Mr. Rouse has written specifically for dance. In 2002 Mr. Martins choreographed The Infernal Machine to an existing score of the same name by Mr. Rouse.
Additional performances of the new Martins ballet will take place on Wednesday, February 15 at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, February 23 at 8 p.m., and Saturday, February 25 at 2 p.m.
Repertory Highlights
Returning to the repertory after several years are Jerome Robbins’ Mother Goose (last performed in winter 1992), Mr. Martins’ Songs of the Auvergne (last performed in winter 1995), and Mr. Wheeldon’s Scènes de Ballet (last performed in winter 2000).
Several of the ballets that premiered during the 2004-2005 season will also return this winter, including Mr. Martins’ Octet and Tālā Gaisma and Mr. Wheeldon’s After the Rain and An American in Paris. In addition, Jerome Robbins’ N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, a work from 1958 that NYCB performed for the first time in spring 2005, will return for five performances.
Overall, the repertory season will feature 16 ballets by George Balanchine, including Divertimento No. 15, which premiered in 1956 and is set to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This ballet is being performed in tribute to the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, on Friday, January 27. Other Balanchine works in the season’s repertory include Concerto Barocco, a 1941 work set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach; Episodes, from 1959, one of the choreographer’s “black-and-white,” Modernist works, set to music by Anton von Webern; and Firebird, a 1949 story ballet with a score by Igor Stravinsky, designs by Marc Chagall, and additional choreography by Jerome Robbins.
The season will also include seven ballets by Jerome Robbins, including Mother Goose, which was choreographed in 1975 to a score by Maurice Ravel, and which has not been performed since 1992. Other works by Robbins include Fancy Free from 1944 with music by Leonard Bernstein, and In the Night, a 1970 work set to solo piano music by Frédéric Chopin.
Among the seven works by Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins returning to the repertory are Songs of the Auvergne, choreographed in 1986 to traditional folk songs adapted by Marie-Joseph Canteloube, and last performed in 1995. The season will also include Fearful Symmetries, choreographed in 1990 to music by John Adams and last performed in 2001.
In addition to his new ballet, Resident Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon will be represented by four works during the winter season: After the Rain (2005, music by Arvo Pärt), An American in Paris (2005, music by George Gershwin), Liturgy (2003, music by Arvo Pärt), and Scènes de Ballet (1999, music by Igor Stravinsky). Scènes de Ballet, which premiered during NYCB’s 50th Anniversary season in 1999, is set in a whimsical Russian ballet studio (designed by Olivia author Ian Falconer) and features a cast of more than 60 students from the School of American Ballet.
Also being performed during the season are Romeo and Juliet (1991), Sean Lavery’s version of the balcony pas de deux, with music by Sergei Prokofiev, as well as Richard Tanner’s Sonatas and Interludes (1982), with music by John Cage.
Theme Subscription Packages
New York City Ballet will once again offer special theme series subscription packages in addition to the traditional same-day-of-the-week subscriptions. This year’s theme series include an all-Balanchine series and a “Ballet Classics” series, as well as a “Choreographers’ Showcase Series” that features works by the Company’s three major choreographers, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins.
For family audiences, there is a special “Family Fun Series” consisting of two matinee programs with half price tickets for children between the ages of 8 and 12, subject to terms and availability.
For complete information on NYCB subscription packages, visit www.nycballet.com.
Ticket Purchases
Tickets for George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ range from $15 to $99 and are currently on sale by mail and through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.com. Beginning September 26, tickets will also be available at the New York State Theater box office, and on September 27, tickets will be available through Center Charge at 212-721-6500.
Tickets for the Opening Night Benefit will be available at the New York State Theater box office beginning September 26 and through Center Charge at 212-721-6500 beginning September 27.
Beginning August 1, winter season subscription series will be on sale by mail, through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.com, and by calling the NYCB subscription office at 800-580-8730. Single-ticket orders for the winter repertory season will be accepted by mail and through the NYCB website at www.nycballet.com beginning September 26. Single tickets will also be available beginning November 22 at the New York State Theater box office, and by calling Center Charge at 212-721-6500 beginning November 21. Single tickets range in cost from $20 to $86.
New York City Ballet’s spring 2006 repertory season will open on April 25 and continue for nine weeks through June 25. Programming for the spring season will be announced at a later date.
The New York State Theater is located on the Lincoln Center Plaza at Broadway at 63rd Street. The mailing address for the NYCB Box Office is New York City Ballet, New York State Theater, 20 Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023. For general information on tickets for any New York City Ballet performance, call 212-870-5570, or visit www.nycballet.com.
New York City Ballet’s 2005 Season of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™ is presented by Wachovia.
New York City Ballet is grateful to Movado for its generous support of the Company.
Major support for new work is provided by The Irene Diamond Fund and members of the New Combinations Fund.
New York City Ballet gratefully acknowledges the Lila Acheson and DeWitt Wallace Endowment Fund, which provides support of new work and audience development.
The revival, refurbishment, and presentation of works by Jerome Robbins, particularly those works that have been absent from the repertory, is made possible in part by a lead gift from The Jerome Robbins Foundation.
The creation and performance of works by Peter Martins is funded in part by an endowment gift from the Solomon family, given in loving memory of Carolyn B. Solomon.
New York City Ballet’s 2005-2006 season is also made possible in part by grants from The Starr Foundation and The Shubert Foundation, contributors to the Repertory and Education Funds, and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
American Airlines is New York City Ballet’s preferred airline.
