The Most Incredible Thing

For his 10th ballet for NYCB, Justin Peck tackles his most ambitious work to date – The Most Incredible Thing. Featuring a cast of more than 50, Peck collaborates with composer Bryce Dessner (The National) and contemporary artist Marcel Dzama to bring Hans Christian Andersen’s dark 1870 fairy tale of the same name to the stage.

NYCB’s Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck’s The Most Incredible Thing premiered on February 2, 2016, at NYCB’s annual New Combinations Evening. Peck and composer Bryce Dessner (The National) had invited visual artist Marcel Dzama to collaborate with them on a new work for New York City Ballet; with Dzama’s intricate and fantastic designs in mind, Peck chose Hans Christian Andersen’s The Most Incredible Thing, a lesser-known fairytale by the Danish author published in 1870.

With lighting by Brandon Stirling Baker, the ballet is Peck’s first-ever narrative ballet and largest to date, with a cast of 56 dancers, including 11 children from the School of American Ballet. For Dzama’s designs, the Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based artist drew inspiration from the Bauhaus visionary Oskar Schlemmer and his avant-garde Triadic Ballet from 1922.

46 minutes