Program
Stravinsky Festival II
MAY 5 (Spring Gala at 7 PM)*, 7 eve, 8
Traverse Stravinsky’s Legacy with Scores Spanning the Composer’s Inimitable Career
The breadth of styles from the various stages of Stravinsky’s career is on full display, beginning with Justin Peck’s Pulcinella Variations, which combines Stravinsky’s foundational neoclassical composition with classical technique and striking costumes by Tsumori Chisato. Balanchine is represented by two notably different works: the charming and evocative Scherzo à la Russe, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto, a dynamic, demanding leotard ballet and one of the definitive neoclassical works in the repertory. For his first commissioned work for the Company, former NYCB Dancer Silas Farley returns with a world premiere homage to Stravinsky and Balanchine’s unprecedented collaborative relationship, set to a new score from composer David K. Israel based on a musical gift exchange between the two titans.
*For the May 5 gala only, Jerome Robbins’ Circus Polka will be performed in place of Pulcinella Variations.
Ballets on this Program
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Pulcinella Variations
Exploring NYCB’s neoclassical roots in his choreography, Peck’s Pulcinella Variations features nine dancers in a series of divertissements, dressed by Japanese fashion designer Tsumori Chisato in whimsical commedia dell’arte-inspired costumes.
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Scherzo à la Russe
This brief, all-female ballet is a light-hearted and buoyant work that evokes the movements of Russian folk dances.
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New Farley
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Stravinsky Violin Concerto
The outer sections of Stravinsky Violin Concerto are carefully-woven masterpieces of symmetry that peel away to reveal two of Balanchine’s most ingenious and unique pas de deux.
