New York City Ballet Spring Performances Kick Off in April

Today at Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet begins its Spring Season rehearsal period with the Company's 90 plus roster of dancers preparing 24 different works from its unparalleled repertory for six weeks of performances, April 19 through May 29, at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

Highlights of the season will include world premiere ballets by choreographers Christopher Wheeldon and Nicolas Blanc, as well as 10 ballets by the Company's Co-Founder George Balanchine, four by Co-Founding Choreographer Jerome Robbins, and additional works by choreographers August Bournonville, Peter Martins, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, and Wheeldon.

The season will open on Tuesday, April 19 with a performance of George Balanchine's Jewels, the three-act, evening-length work that was created for New York City Ballet in 1967. Each section of the ballet is distinct in both music and mood with Emeralds to music by Faure? an evocation of France, Rubies to music by Stravinsky epitomizing the speed and rhythms of America, and Diamonds to music by Tschaikovsky recalling the grandeur of Imperial Russia and the Maryinsky Theater.

Jewels will receive five performances during the 2016 Spring Season - Tuesday, April 19; Saturday, April 23 (eve); Wednesday, April 27; Thursday, April 28; and Sunday, May 1.

The opening week of the spring season will also feature a Contemporary Choreographers program consisting of Christopher Wheeldon's Estancia, which premiered in 2010; Alexei Ratmansky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which premiered in 2014, and Justin Peck's Everywhere We Go, which also premiered in 2014; an American Music program consisting of Peter Martins' Barber Violin Concerto, Jerome Robbins' N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, and Justin Peck's The Most Incredible Thing; and a final program consisting of August Bournonville's Bournonville Divertissements, Robbins' Moves, and Balanchine's Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux and Symphony in Three Movements.

Other program highlights include an All Balanchine program consisting of Ballo della Regina, Kammermusik No. 2, and Vienna Waltzes; and an All Robbins program consisting of Dances at a Gathering and West Side Story Suite.

The final week of the 2016 Spring Season will feature seven performances of Balanchine's beloved full-length staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream from May 24 through May 29.

SPRING GALA PERFORMANCE - Wednesday May 4
Featuring World Premiere Ballets by Christopher Wheeldon and Nicolas Blanc and Alexei Ratmansky's Concerto DSCH

NYCB's Annual Spring Gala performance will take place on Wednesday, May 4 and will feature world premiere ballets by choreographers Christopher Wheeldon and Nicolas Blanc. The Chairmen for the Spring Gala evening are Ursula M. Burns and Lesley Stahl, and the evening will honor Jay Fishman, the Chairman of the NYCB Board of Directors.

Wheeldon, who danced with NYCB from 1993 to 2000 and was the Company's Resident Choreographer from 2001 to 2008, has created 19 works for NYCB since 1997. Wheeldon is also the director and choreographer of the Tony Award-winning musical An American in Paris, set to the music of George Gershwin, which is currently running at the Palace Theater on Broadway.

For his new work for NYCB, Wheeldon will once again choreograph to music by Gershwin, using the symphonic version of his legendary 1924 score Rhapsody in Blue. The title of the ballet is American Rhapsody, which was Gershwin's working title for the score while he was composing the piece. The ballet will feature scenic design by the New York-based Cuban artist Leslie Sardinias, costumes by former NYCB Principal Dancer Janie Taylor, and lighting by NYCB Resident Lighting Designer Mark Stanley.

Currently an Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet, Wheeldon has created numerous works for the British company, including his acclaimed full-length productions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2011) and The Winter's Tale (2014), both of which were co-produced by the National Ballet of Canada.
Wheeldon has also created numerous works for ballet companies around the world including American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet.

The Spring Gala will also feature a premiere by choreographer Nicolas Blanc which was developed during a working session of the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB, during the fall of 2015. The ballet, called Mothership, will be set to the score of the same name by Mason Bates, the young American composer who is currently composer-in-residence for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and has also worked closely with the San Francisco Symphony and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The score for Mothership is a large-scale work for orchestra and electronica that was commissioned by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and was viewed online by more than two million people during its premiere in 2011. Mothership will also feature costumes by NYCB Director of Costumes Marc Happel, with lighting by Stanley.

Blanc is currently a Ballet Master for The Joffrey Ballet and is a former Principal Dancer for San Francisco Ballet. Born in France, Blanc studied at the Acade?mie de Danse Classique Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo and the Paris Opera Ballet, and also danced for the Nice Opera Ballet, Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, and the Zurich Ballet. Prior to joining The Joffrey Ballet in 2011, Blanc also served as Ballet Master for the Scottish Ballet.

The Spring Gala performance will also feature Alexei Ratmansky's Concerto DSCH, which was created for NYCB in 2008 to Shostakovich's Concerto No. 2 in F Major, and was the second of four works that Ratmansky has created for NYCB. A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Ratmansky is one of the ballet world's most acclaimed choreographers. He is currently Artist in Residence at American Ballet Theatre, where he has created 12 ballets since 2009, and was previously the Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet.

All performances will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue. Tickets start at $30 and are available at nycballet.com, by calling 212- 496-0600, or at the theater's box office. Benefit-priced tickets for the May 4 Spring Gala evening, which include the 7 p.m. performance, a pre-performance reception, and a black-tie supper ball, are available through the NYCB Special Events Office at 212-870-5585 or at nycballet.com/springgala.

To post a comment, you must register and login.