Performance Dates
Soaring abandon and romantic flirtation make way for a Justin Peck premiere
A company tradition, the annual New Combinations program illuminates the wealth of diversity in the repertory. This year the program opens with Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht Ballet, an exhilarating dance highlighting a female cast of two dozen soaring and sweeping across the stage to music from the Gounod opera Faust. An excerpt from Flower Festival in Genzano has become a beloved staple of the international repertory, a joyous and romantic pas de deux exemplifying the fleet, buoyant choreography of the 19th-century Danish master August Bournonville. Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer finds mysterious and compelling dramatic nuances in its Prokofiev score. The program, which as always is timed to coincide with Balanchine’s January birthday, invariably includes a premiere, in this case the latest ballet from Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck, set to a score by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Ballets on this Program
-
Walpurgisnacht Ballet
Balanchine once famously said "ballet is woman," and in Walpurgisnacht Ballet he sends 24 women soaring across the stage with wild abandon.
-
Flower Festival in Genzano Pas de Deux
This popular stand-alone piece excerpted from August Bournonville’s full-length Flower Festival in Genzano presents two young lovers demonstrating the choreographer’s signature fleet-footed choreography, slowing down only for a romantic pas de deux.
-
New J. Peck
Pronounced by The New York Times as having “a knack for tapping into a generational mood,” Resident Choreographer Justin Peck creates his 26th work for his home company.
-
Opus 19/The Dreamer
Set to Prokofiev’s feverish concerto, Opus 19/The Dreamer follows a male protagonist on a journey to find his elusive and ethereal counterpart.
