A Night on the Town at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center

New Jersey Ballet presents A Night On the Town, which will feature Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, which was the inspiration for the full-length musical On the Town. Fancy Free was Robbins’ first collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein. Choreographed in 1944, Robbins and Bernstein aspired to bring a modern American sensibility to ballet with the concept of sailors on shore leave in New York City.

The program will also feature George Balanchine’s Rubies. Set to Igor Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, Rubies sends dancers racing across the stage to reflect Stravinsky’s jazz-inflected piano with movements that incorporate sassy style and sharp attack. Rubies premiered at New York City Ballet in 1967, where New Jersey Ballet’s long-time Artistic Advisor, Edward Villella was part of the original cast. Reencounter, a work by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano and another pas de deux to be announced soon will also be featured on the program.

Photo by Leigh Ann Esty