A glittering, star-studded occasion, NYCB’s 2025 Fall Fashion Gala once again married the artforms of dance and contemporary couture, turning the spotlight on visionary collaborations between choreographers and designers.

After red carpet arrivals and a cocktail reception on the David H. Koch Theater’s Terrace, the performance ensued with the fleet-footed vivacity of Gianna Reisen’s Composer’s Holiday, a 2017 Fall Fashion Gala premiere set to a score by Lukas Foss and costumed by Virgil Abloh of Off-White™, followed by William Forsythe’s strikingly inventive Herman Schmerman Pas de Deux, which paired with an electronic score by his long-time collaborator Thom Willems and costumes by Gianni Versace.

Up next, a short video introduced the event’s main fare, a world premiere by distinguished dancemaker Jamar Roberts. Roberts’ third commission for the company, Foreseeable Future brought together costumes by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen, who previously worked with NYCB on costumes for Benjamin Millepied’s Neverwhere in 2013, and music by Venezuelan artist Arca.

As the audience dispersed, gala attendees made their way to the Promenade where the evening concluded with an elegant supper before transitioning to the dance floor for light revelry to the stylings of DJ Bill Coleman.

COMPOSER'S HOLIDAY
Music by Lukas Foss
Choreography by Gianna Reisen
Costumes by Virgil Abloh of Off-White™
Costumes supervised by Marc Happel
Lighting by Mark Stanley

Last seen in its debut season seven years ago, Composer’s Holiday marked Gianna Reisen as NYCB’s youngest commissioned choreographer to date, her refreshing dance reflecting the capricious changes in mood—from exuberant to romantic to elegiac—of a violin and piano interpretation of Lukas Foss’s Three American Pieces.

HERMAN SCHMERMAN PAS DE DEUX
Music by Thom Willems
Choreography by William Forsythe
Costumes by Gianni Versace and William Forsythe
Lighting by Mark Stanley

William Forsythe’s signature angularity, spontaneity, and wit are on full display in the compellingly quirky pas de deux from Herman Schmerman, a genre-stretching piece that has regularly returned to the repertory since its creation over three decades ago.

FORESEEABLE FUTURE
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music by Arca
Costumes by Iris van Herpen
Costumes supervised by Marc Happel
Lighting by Brandon Stirling Baker

Expressing a contradiction between the beauty of the natural world and rapid technological evolution, Jamar Roberts’ third commission for NYCB draws upon sculptural costume designs that feature hypnotic wings to underpin organic fluid movements and angular iridescent attire garbing a futuristic phalanx that weave through extreme tilts and spirals.

Gala attendees posed for pictures as they arrived on the red carpet and danced into the evening following the performance.