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New York City Ballet
07/12/2022 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Tuesday, July 12 – NYCB On and Off Stage
Back by popular demand is a special “NYCB On and Off Stage” presentation designed to introduce the season with an intimate, up-close look at selected excerpts from the Company’s repertory of ballets that will be featured during the residency including Merce Cunningham’s Summerspace, Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces, Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and more. The evening will be hosted by Principal Dancers Sterling Hyltin and Adrian Danchig-Waring who will introduce the excerpts and provide insights on each ballet.
Wednesday, July 13 – 20th Century Masters
Saturday, July 16 – 20th Century Masters at 7:30 p.m.
SPAC’s 20th Century Masters program will pay homage to iconic choreographers Merce Cunningham, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine. Opening the program is Balanchine’s Chaconne, by turns elegiac and courtly, beginning with a dreamlike prologue and concluding with a grand series of classical dances. Highlighting the program is Cunningham’s Summerspace, which has not been performed at SPAC since 1967. The piece, part of NYCB’s 2019 fall season and originally planned for SPAC’s 2020 season, was performed in honor of the 100th anniversary of Cunningham’s birth. The piece is indicative of Cunningham’s unique collaborative method, in which Morton Feldman composed the score, Robert Rauschenberg designed the décor, and Cunningham choreographed independently from each other. Together, the movement, music, and décor give the effect of a balmy, summer day. The program will culminate with Glass Pieces, composed by Philip Glass with choreography by Jerome Robbins. Expansive in scope and streamlined in style, Glass Pieces captures the pulsating heartbeat of metropolitan life with its charged, urban choreography, concluding in a finale that propels the corps de ballet across the stage at an electrifying pace.
Thursday, July 14 – Evolution at 2:00 p.m. and Evolution at 7:30 p.m.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Resident Choreographer Jamar Roberts makes his highly anticipated debut on SPAC’s stage with a new work that premiered as part of NYCB’s winter season to open the program. The ballet is set to selections for orchestra and jazz quartet from saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter’s album Emanon. Set to hold its NYCB premiere in Spring 2022, Gustave le Gray No. 1 was originally created in 2019 for “Ballet Across America” at the Kennedy Center and featured dancers from Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) and Miami City Ballet. Choreographed by Pam Tanowitz and set to music by Caroline Shaw performed by an onstage pianist, the work will be performed by two dancers from NYCB and two guest dancers from DTH. In Creases is the first work Justin Peck created for the Company, where it received its world premiere in July 2012 at SPAC. Set to Philip Glass’s “Four Movements for Two Pianos,” Peck has since created 18 works for NYCB, and was named the Company’s Resident Choreographer in 2014 and Artistic Advisor in 2019. A ballet with unceasing appeal, The Four Temperaments by George Balanchine references the medieval concept of psychological humors through its classically grounded but definitively modern movement.
Friday, July 15 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 16 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream at 2:00 p.m.
Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was performed by NYCB as part of their first season at SPAC in 1966. The full-length story ballet is based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of his happiest and most loved comedies. It is called a “Dream” because of the unrealistic events the characters experience in the play — real, yet unreal, such as crossed lovers, meaningless quarrels, forest chases leading to more confusion, and magic spells woven by the infamous Puck. FREE ice cream provided by Stewart’s Shops at this event before the start of the main stage performance!
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