Balanchine's, JEWELS, PITHOPRAKTA and More Set for New York City Ballet 2026 Fall Season

New York City Ballet will launch its 2026 Fall Season this September, featuring the return of George Balanchine’s full-length Jewels, three world premieres created for the annual Fall Fashion Gala, and the revival of Balanchine’s rarely performed Pithoprakta. The season will also celebrate Principal Dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring with a farewell performance featuring works by Balanchine and Lar Lubovitch, along with a pièce d’occasion by Pam Tanowitz.

Opening Week: Jewels

NYCB's 2026-27 Season will begin with a four-week Fall Season opening on Tuesday, September 22 with seven performances of Jewels, the full-length masterpiece choreographed by NYCB co-founder George Balanchine in 1967 to music by Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky, and Peter Illyitch Tschaikovsky.

Fall Fashion Gala

The second week of the Fall Season will be highlighted by the Company's annual Fall Fashion Gala on Thursday, October 1. The gala evening will feature World Premiere ballets by Jennifer Archibald, in her NYCB debut, with costumes by London-based designer Robert Wun, and lighting by NYCB Resident Lighting Designer Mark Stanley; NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck, who will create a pas de deux with costumes designed by the London-based Irish designer Simone Rocha, and lighting by Brandon Stirling Baker; and Alysa Pires, who will create her second commission for the Company, with costumes designed by the Amsterdam-based fashion house Viktor&Rolf, and lighting by NYCB Resident Lighting Designer Mark Stanley.

The music for the Peck premiere will be an original composition for orchestra and vocalist by the American composer Gabriel Kahane titled mirror/sky (landslide), an homage to the song Landslide, written by Stevie Nicks who will serve as Honorary Chair for the gala evening. For this special one-time-only gala performance, mirror/sky (landslide) will be performed by the NYCB Orchestra and singer-songwriter Haley Heynderickx. Justin Peck's World Premiere is generously made possible by Emily Blavatnik/Blavatnik Family Foundation.

The music for the Archibald premiere will consist of a selection of recorded music by Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy, Taufiq Qureshi, Hauschka & Hildur Guðnadóttir, Roger Goula, Deskant, Sebastian Plano, and Tokio Myers. Pires' premiere will be set to two compositions by the late Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock, Oiseaux bleus et sauvages and one movement from Aeromancy.

Following the October 1 Fall Fashion Gala performance, the Archibald and Pires premieres will return for four additional performances on a program that will also include Kyle Abraham's Love Letter (on shuffle), created to music by James Blake for the 2022 Fall Fashion Gala and featuring costumes by Giles Deacon; and Justin Peck's Pulcinella Variations, created to music by Igor Stravinsky for the 2017 Fall Fashion Gala and featuring costumes by Tsumori Chisato.

Balanchine and Robbins

The second week of the season will also include a program of works created by NYCB's co-founding choreographers that will debut on Tuesday, September 29 and consist of Balanchine's La Source from 1968 to music by Léo Delibes and The Four Temperaments from 1946 to music by Paul Hindemith, and Robbins' The Concert from 1956 to music by Frédéric Chopin.

Wheeldon, Ratmansky, and Balanchine

The third and fourth weeks of the Fall Season will be highlighted by two programs. The first, debuting on Wednesday, October 7, will consist of Christopher Wheeldon's Continuum from 2002 to music by György Ligeti, Alexei Ratmansky's Solitude from 2024 to music by Gustav Mahler, and Balanchine's Bourrée Fantasque from 1949 to music by Emmanuel Chabrier.

Revival of Pithoprakta

The second program will feature a revival of Balanchine's rarely performed Pithoprakta, the second section of the work titled Metastaseis & Pithoprakta, which was created in 1968 to music by Iannis Xenakis, the Romanian-born, Greek-French avant-garde composer. Created for Suzanne Farrell, Arthur Mitchell, and a corps of 12 dancers, Pithoprakta was last performed by NYCB in 1969.

In 2007 Farrell reconstructed Pithoprakta for The Suzanne Farrell Ballet and she has returned to NYCB to stage this major revival of the work, which will feature costumes by Holly Hynes and lighting by Mark Stanley. The first performance of Pithoprakta will take place on Thursday, October 8 as part of an all-Balanchine program that will also include La Sonnambula from 1946 to music by Vittorio Rieti, The Unanswered Question (from Ivesiana) from 1954 to music by Charles Ives, and Theme and Variations from 1947 to music by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky.

Adrian Danchig-Waring Farewell Performance

The Fall Season will conclude on Sunday, October 18 with a Farewell Performance honoring Principal Dancer Adrian Danchig-Waring, who retires from NYCB after more than 23 years. For this one-time-only occasion, choreographer Pam Tanowitz will create a World Premiere pièce d'occasion as a personal artistic gift for Danchig-Waring. The program will also feature works closely associated with Danchig-Waring: Lar Lubovitch's Each In Their Own Time, in which Danchig-Waring originated his role, and Balanchine's The Four Temperaments and Agon.

About Adrian Danchig-Waring

Born in San Francisco, California, Danchig-Waring began his dance training at age 11 at Dance Theatre Seven under David Roxander. He entered the School of American Ballet in 2001, became an apprentice with NYCB in 2002, and joined the corps de ballet in 2003. He was promoted to Soloist in 2009 and rose to Principal Dancer in 2013.

Over the course of his career, Danchig-Waring has performed an extensive repertory of works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, and has collaborated with many of today's leading choreographers, including Wayne McGregor, Emily Molnar, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Justin Peck, Angelin Preljocaj, Alexei Ratmansky, Pam Tanowitz, and Christopher Wheeldon.