The first ballet created for the Company by Principal Dancer Tiler Peck, Concerto for Two Pianos, named after the melodic Poulenc score, delighted audiences at its premiere in the winter of 2024 with its sweeping energy and effortless elegance. The dance returns accompanied by two pieces new to the repertory, notably comprising NYCB’s first program of ballets all choreographed by women. Signs was created by Gianna Reisen for the School of American Ballet’s annual Workshop Performances in 2022 to selections of music from Philip Glass.

EPSG:4326

Contemporary Choreography

Lincoln Center

The 2024 Fall Fashion Gala continues to pair couture with contemporary choreography: a world premiere from Caili Quan marking her debut work for NYCB, a Company premiere by Gianna Reisen originally made for the School of American Ballet in 2022, and Tiler Peck’s acclaimed Winter 2024 creation Concerto for Two Pianos.

Fall Fashion Gala

The rare full-length ballet highlighted by generous doses of comedy, Coppélia returns to the repertory to mark the 50th anniversary of Balanchine’s 1974 staging. Drawing on the Petipa production, Balanchine collaborated with the great Russian dancer Alexandra Danilova, renowned for her performance in the central role of Swanilda, to bring this 19th-century staple to renewed life.

Coppélia

A trio of classic dances by Balanchine joins a favorite from Alexei Ratmansky. Mozartiana, one of Balanchine’s late works, weaves an elegiac spell with its austerely beautiful black costuming and pellucid classical choreography. Two dances set to Stravinsky, the elegant, neoclassical Monumentum pro Gesualdo and the spiky, arrestingly unique Movements for Piano and Orchestra, always make for a stimulating pairing. 

Balanchine + Ratmansky

NYCB marks Justin Peck’s tenth year as resident choreographer with this selection of some of his finest works, displaying both his versatility and his musicality. The program includes his first dance for the Company, In Creases, from 2012, an ensemble piece set to music by Philip Glass. As its title indicates, Solo was choreographed for a single dancer, and made its debut as a short film directed by Sofia Coppola during the pandemic.

All Peck

This quartet of dances demonstrates a wide variety of repertory. Making its debut with the Company is a work from choreographer Lar Lubovitch, set to Brahms piano compositions, commissioned by New York City Center and created in 2021 on two of NYCB’s principal dancers. Representing tradition are works from the founding choreographers: Balanchine’s evocative Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée,’ which never fails to wrap audiences in its air of mystery, while Robbins’ The Four Seasons moves through the cycles of the title, illuminating each with contrasting classical dances.

Eclectic NYCB

George Balanchine ballets choreographed to music from two composers he revered—Tschaikovsky and Stravinsky—share a program with one of Jerome Robbins’ most beloved works. Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, originally created in 1941 as Ballet Imperial, remains among Balanchine’s most opulently beautiful works, endlessly rich in its exploration of classical technique as epitomized by the Russian school at its height. Duo Concertant, by contrast, is among his more minimalist ballets, a pas de deux that includes interplay between the dancers and the onstage pianist and violinist. And Robbins’ Glass Pieces is a continuously mesmerizing dance set to a pulsating, hypnotic score by the contemporary master Philip Glass.

Masters At Work

Shakespeare’s peerless comedy has been translated into many artistic mediums over the centuries, proving the enduring appeal of its richly complicated tale of mismatched lovers, the buffoonish “rude mechanicals,” and the fairy-tale kingdom presided over by the warring Oberon and Titania. Balanchine’s genius is illustrated in his mastery of all aspects of the play’s dizzying plot, and features, in the wedding finale, one of his most beautifully composed pas de deux.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

This specially curated performance is designed to provide a friendly, inclusive environment where individuals with sensory processing challenges, including autism, can experience New York City Ballet. Slight modifications will include a relaxed entry/exit policy, adjustments to lighting and sound levels, designated break areas throughout the Theater, additional event staffing to assist with audience needs, and pre-visit resources, including a visual schedule. This one-time-only performance features two ballets from NYCB’s expansive repertory. Christopher Wheeldon’s Scènes de Ballet, featuring 64 students from the School of American ballet, offers a glimpse into the rehearsal studio as young dancers refine their artistry. Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces, set to music by contemporary composer Philip Glass, highlights the graceful athleticism of the corps de ballet, as the ensemble weaves across the stage with dynamic fervor.

Sensory Friendly Performances

New York City Ballet continually invests in works by new generations of choreographers. Pam Tanowitz’s Law of Mosaics, set to Ted Hearne’s score, combines moments of resonant silence with propulsive string-based music, and is further illuminated by the colorful costumes of Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung. Despite its simplicity, This Bitter Earth, a pas de deux danced to a remix of Dinah Washington’s recording of the title song, ranks among Christopher Wheeldon’s most delicate and moving works. For many followers of the Company, William Forsythe’s Herman Schmerman Pas de Deux remains a totemic example of the adventurousness that Balanchine always championed and exemplified. The Company’s ongoing interest in a wide variety of music and the dancing it inspires is illustrated in Kyle Abraham’s Love Letter (on shuffle), which draws on the pop music of singer-songwriter James Blake and combines classical steps with a distinctly 21st-century aesthetic.

Contemporary Choreography II

A classic Jerome Robbins ballet pointing the way toward the future combines with three works from contemporary choreographers. Glass Pieces is Robbins’ electrifying 1983 ballet to music by the iconic contemporary composer Philip Glass. Alexei Ratmansky employed a classic 19th-century piano composition from Mussorgsky to create a ballet that translates the music into the choreographer’s distinctive 21st-century idioms. Gianna Reisen’s Play Time, which debuted at the 2022 Fall Fashion Gala, is set to a score by Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Solange Knowles. And Red Angels, from the late choreographer Ulysses Dove, has remained a staple in the Company repertory since its debut in 1994.

Contemporary Choreography I

Although George Balanchine’s decades-long collaboration with Igor Stravinsky contributed several classics to the repertory, New York City Ballet choreographers of newer generations have continued to find inspiration in the Russian composer’s work. Christopher Wheeldon’s Scènes de Ballet, just his second dance for the Company, features 64 students of the School of American Ballet in an enchanting depiction of young dancers learning their craft, with a charming set by the devoted ballet-lover and artist Ian Falconer, author of the beloved Olivia children’s books. Justin Peck’s Pulcinella Variations combines classical steps with vibrant costumes derived from the commedia dell’arte tradition. And Balanchine’s classic leotard ballet Symphony in Three Movements reveals, with its inspired matching of music and choreography, how deeply Balanchine’s dance ideals and Stravinsky’s music were attuned.

All Stravinsky

A pair of dances that illustrate two distinctive aspects of Jerome Robbins’ artistry highlight this diverse program. Interplay, first seen in 1945, features music by Morton Gould, and was described by one critic as “the foundation of an American mid-forties classic style.” Other Dances features just two dancers in a display of sweeping, occasionally folk-inflected ballet technique. The Robbins pieces are joined by newer works: Pam Tanowitz’s Gustave le Gray No. 1 is performed to a score for solo piano by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, its title a tribute to the 19th-century French artist known for his innovations in the nascent medium of photography. And Justin Peck’s Year of the Rabbit, his second dance for the Company, marked Peck’s first collaboration with the singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens.

Classic NYCB II

New York City Ballet’s past and present meet here, as two Balanchine classics are joined by a pair of new ballets. Rubies, from the full-length Jewels, has become an established stand-alone diversion, delightful for Balanchine’s endlessly energetic and witty interpretation of the splendid Stravinsky score. Le Tombeau de Couperin, a highlight of the Company’s 1974 Ravel Festival, is a gracious, courtly Black & White ensemble work. Resident Choreographer Justin Peck presents his 24th ballet for the Company, while Amy Hall Garner, whose work has been seen on a wide array of dance and theater stages, makes her debut with the Company.

Classic NYCB I

The 2024 Spring Gala turns the spotlight on NYCB’s future through our commitment to new work, featuring world premieres from Resident Choreographer Justin Peck and renowned choreographer Amy Hall Garner, whose work has been seen on a wide array of dance and theater stages. This celebratory event opens with George Balanchine’s Rubies, which epitomizes the distinct energy and athleticism that are hallmarks of the Company to this day.

Spring Gala

Ever since its 1969 premiere, Jerome Robbins’ expansive masterwork Dances at a Gathering has held a special place in the repertory. Set to a suite of Chopin’s piano works, the ballet, performed on a bare stage, is a pure dance depiction of the romantic, comic, and communal interactions between the performers onstage, who, while not specifically characterized, express aspects of their personalities and spirituality through classical steps occasionally inflected with folk influences. The ballet is joined by another deeply romantic work: Balanchine’s Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet is, as the title suggests, a four-movement ballet that vividly evokes the elegance of the Austro-Hungarian empire, with Schoenberg’s orchestrations of Brahms’s music adding a subtle veneer of modernity.

Masters at Work

While known for his loyalty to composers from his native Russia, Balanchine also displayed a deep affection for French music, as the dances in this program illustrate. The rarely seen Bourrée Fantasque, set to the music of Chabrier, includes romping comedy in the first movement and a blazing finale for the corps de ballet. Errante, originally titled Tzigane after the name of Ravel’s rhapsodic score and last revived for the 1993 Balanchine Celebration, returns in a staging by Suzanne Farrell, for whom it was choreographed in 1975. The evening also includes two disparate dances to Bizet scores: the animated pas de deux The Steadfast Tin Soldier, with its fairy-tale characters who spring to life, and Symphony in C, one of Balanchine’s most brilliant and cherished displays of the variety of classical style.

All Balanchine

Christopher Wheeldon’s Carnival of the Animals makes a welcome return to the repertory. An engagingly whimsical tale, with a libretto by the actor John Lithgow, the dance depicts a young boy who falls asleep in the Museum of Natural History, only to dream that the people in his life have taken animal shapes. Three varied Balanchine classics complete this family-friendly program: the lively pas de deux Tarantella; the effervescent Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, which showcases its dancers’ virtuosic technique; and the jubilant Stars and Stripes, Balanchine’s danced celebration of America and the march-master John Philip Sousa

Balanchine + Wheeldon

A world premiere ballet by Alexei Ratmansky, who joins the Company as artist in residence this season, forms the centerpiece of this program. Jerome Robbins’s Opus 19/The Dreamer casts an elusive spell with its imagery of a nocturnal journey into the mysteries of the mind, with a muse-like figure haunting the imagination of the dreamer of the title. The program concludes with Balanchine’s iconic leotard ballet Symphony in Three Movements, a dance alive with electric energy.

Innovators & Icons

Resident Choreographer Justin Peck’s 23rd ballet for the Company is also his first full-evening work. Danced to celebrated compositions by the revered American composer Aaron Copland, including Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man, and Billy the Kid, the plotless, intermissionless ballet features a cast of 30 and vibrantly colored sets by the artist Jeffrey Gibson. Its debut during the 22-23 Season was received with rapturous enthusiasm by audiences.

Copland Dance Episodes: A Ballet by Justin Peck

This nicely varied program features works from four choreographers performed to music of diverse styles and periods. The Concert, Jerome Robbins’s impishly funny sendup of the supposedly staid behavior of classical concertgoers, finds unexpected humor in its score of selected Chopin piano works. The program also includes Balanchine’s Ballo della Regina, performed to Verdi ballet music, which features bravura choreography that challenges even the most technically assured dancers; Peter Martins’ endlessly dynamic Hallelujah Junction, danced to a score for two pianos by the esteemed contemporary composer John Adams; and In a Landscape, a pas de deux to music by the modernist composer John Cage created by Albert Evans, a beloved longtime principal dancer with the Company who passed away in 2015.

Classic NYCB

Two strikingly contrasted Balanchine ballets compose this program. The Four Temperaments, a staple of the neoclassical Black & White repertory, changes moods, styles, and tempos as it emphasizes four different elements of the human psyche. Liebeslieder Walzer, danced to the Brahms songs of the title, performed by singers at the side of the stage, evokes a night of romantic magic as four couples move from formal ballroom dance to a mysterious nether realm where the couples’ untethered souls collide and tangle and unite.

A world premiere ballet by Tiler Peck, a longtime principal dancer known for her astute sense of musicality, joins works from Resident Choreographer Justin Peck and Alexei Ratmansky, who joins the Company in an official capacity for the first time for the 2023-24 Season, as artist in residence. Peck’s Rotunda, with a commissioned score by the prominent American composer Nico Muhly, is infused with a sense of community and togetherness, while Ratmansky’s Odesa, danced to incidental music from the 1990 Russian movie Sunset, features an intriguing musical mix ranging from tango to klezmer, and nods to the movie’s roots in Isaac Babel’s tales of Jewish gangsters in the titular city.

New Combinations

Ballets from three choreographers closely associated with the Company are gathered here. Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia ranks among his most distinctive and popular works, with its thrillingly spiky choreography set to the modernist music of György Ligeti. Peter Martins’s Barber Violin Concerto is the rare dance in the repertory that combines elements of both ballet and modern dance, with one couple barefoot and another sporting traditional ballet footwear. And Justin Peck’s The Times Are Racing, a galvanizingly energetic audience favorite since its debut in 2017, finds the dancers in footwear of yet another kind: sneakers.

Wheeldon + Martins + Peck

Jerome Robbins, one of the premiere dance-makers of the 20th Century, was long associated with New York City Ballet, which became his classical home after his many years working in both ballet and on Broadway. This program unites three works that showcase his versatility and continual ingenuity: Fancy Free, Robbins’ first ballet, a classic comedy in dance depicting three sailors on a wild and woolly night of shore leave; In the Night, a quietly spellbinding ballet for three couples danced to four nocturnes from Chopin, one of Robbins’s favorite composers; and finally The Four Seasons, an exuberantly playful ballet that leaps nimbly between styles to suit the changing cycles of the year.

Tribute to Robbins

During the holiday period, the entire Company is immersed in activities surrounding George Balanchine's The Nutcracker®. All 90 dancers, 62 musicians, 40 stagehands, and more than 125 children in two alternating casts from the School of American Ballet join forces to make each performance as magical as possible.

Audiences of all ages are sure to be captivated by the lure of Tschaikovsky's music, Balanchine's choreography, Karinska's sumptuous costumes, and Rouben Ter-Arutunian's magical sets. Based on the Alexandre Dumas père version of E.T.A. Hoffmann's tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816), George Balanchine's The Nutcracker® is one of the most complex ballets in the Company's active repertory and provides an unforgettable spark to the holiday season.

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker 2023

Balanchine’s distillation of Swan Lake into a single-act ballet was inspired by Lev Ivanov’s choreography for the original lakeside second act, including the luminous pas de deux between the mysterious swan at the center of the plot and her smitten swain. The ballet is also notable for its flock of black swans, a striking departure from the traditional white. Composer Mussorgsky’s most famous piano composition, Pictures at an Exhibition, became the basis for Alexei Ratmansky’s fourth ballet for the Company, a suite of dances that embrace the music’s changes in tenor and tempo as it moves between light and dark passages.

Balanchine + Ratmansky II

For his first full-evening work, returning after its January 2023 premiere, Resident Choreographer Justin Peck pays tribute to one of America’s foremost composers, Aaron Copland, in a collaboration with the painter and sculptor Jeffrey Gibson. Building on Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes, his first piece set to a Copland composition, Peck will draw exclusively on Copland’s music – not the scenarios or steps of the famous prior ballets set to the composer’s music – for inspiration.

New Peck

Two piquantly contrasted works by Balanchine are joined by a treasured Robbins classic. Raymonda Variations features dances of “indescribable happiness” and “simple deftness,” as one critic wrote, and includes subtle nods to the choreography of the Marius Petipa story ballet of the title, although it is a plotless work. Agon, one of Balanchine’s supreme collaborations with Stravinsky, was inspired by classic French dance steps, but reimagines and reinterprets them in the spare but powerful style of Balanchine’s historic Black & White leotard ballets. Robbins’ Fancy Free concludes the program on a note of jovial comedy with its depiction of sailors on shore leave looking for love – or just an evening of freewheeling fun.

Masters at Work: Balanchine & Robbins III

Constant repertory renewal has always been a tradition at New York City Ballet, as this program of new and recent works illustrates. Alysa Pires, a Canadian choreographer who has been called “a dancemaker to watch,” creates her first ballet for the Company. Christopher Wheeldon’s long history with the Company continues as he makes his 23rd ballet for a new generation of dancers. Rounding out the evening is The Times Are Racing, Justin Peck’s sneaker ballet, which features innovative gender-neutral choreography for several roles and is set to Dan Deacon’s propulsive electronic score, with music and dance combining to capture the exuberance of urban life.

21st Century Choreography II

Join us for the 2023 Spring Gala in celebration of new choreography on Thursday, May 4, at our home at the David H. Koch Theater. The evening will begin with an elegant cocktail reception at 5:30 PM, followed by the performance at 7 PM, and will conclude with a glittering Supper Ball at 9 PM.

Justin Peck’s fondness for putting sneakers on classical dancers returns with Partita, a dynamic ballet for eight dancers. The dance rests upon an unusual score, a Pulitzer Prize-winning a cappella composition by Caroline Shaw, as well as a vibrant but simple setting by Eva LeWitt, the daughter of acclaimed artist Sol LeWitt (one of whose works, in turn, inspired Shaw’s music). The ballet is joined on the program by works from choreographers Gianna Reisen and Kyle Abraham, which both return from the 2022 Fall Fashion Gala.

21st Century Choreography I

Dances set to music from 19th-century France comprise this program. Balanchine’s La Source, set to the music of Léo Delibes, has been hailed as the choreographer’s tribute to the charm and sophistication of French dancing. Originally composed as a pas de deux, it was later expanded with the addition of an ensemble. Alexei Ratmansky turned to the lesser-known Édouard Lalo for inspiration for his Namouna, A Grand Divertissement, a ballet that likewise draws on classical French steps and style as it depicts a romantic tale of thwarted love eventually rewarded, combining pure dance, hints of drama, and lively moments of wit.

Balanchine + Ratmansky I

Three Balanchine ballets are joined by one of Robbins’ masterworks. Square Dance finds Balanchine using classical steps to interpret the American folk-dance idiom of the title. Haieff Divertimento is a more rarely seen ballet, a chamber work in five parts that one critic, at its 1947 debut, hailed as “an out-and-out joy.” Donizetti Variations also exudes a buoyant spirit with its intricate steps and gentle moments of comedy. And Robbins’ enigmatic and hypnotic Afternoon of a Faun, depicting a pair of dancers at work in a studio, is considered among his greatest achievements despite its simplicity.

Masters at Work: Balanchine & Robbins II

Two major ballets performed to music by Bach bookend this program, along with a spiky Balanchine dance set to a work by the 20th-century composer Hindemith. Concerto Barocco, first presented in 1941, was among the three works danced at the first performance ever given by the newly established New York City Ballet in 1948. Its formal beauty and responsiveness to the score has made it an undisputed classic of the international repertory. Robbins dedicated three of his last four ballets to the music of Bach. His very last, Brandenburg, from 1997, is a series of delicate yet complex pas de deux set to four of the famous concertos of the title. Kammermusik No. 2 finds Balanchine meeting the challenges of the Hindemith score with lively choreography for two principal couples and, unusually, an all-male corps de ballet.

Masters at Work: Balanchine & Robbins I

Among the most cherished works in the international repertory, The Sleeping Beauty depicts the bewitching fairy tale through peerless classical choreography. Peter Martins’ version streamlines the ballet into two acts, while providing ample pleasures through both its sleek refinement of Marius Petipa’s celebrated choreography and richly evocative settings that bring the story of love, loss, and rebirth to captivating life.

The Sleeping Beauty

We hope you will join us for our Annual Luncheon event which has become a highlight of the city’s winter social calendar. During the program, guests will be treated to an inside look at the Company and its Dancers. The afternoon will begin at 11 AM with the onstage program, followed by an elegant seated luncheon on the Promenade of the David H. Koch Theater.

Annual Luncheon

New York City Ballet has always refreshed its classic repertory with new works. This program features the world premiere of a dance by up-and-coming choreographer Keerati Jinakunwiphat, whose distinguished career includes work with many of the modern dance world’s established stars and companies, from Trisha Brown to Doug Varone and Kyle Abraham. Alexei Ratmansky’s Voices foregrounds five female dancers, performing to an experimental score that features recordings made by notable women accompanied by solo piano. And Justin Peck’s endlessly dynamic Everywhere We Go, with its ample cast of 25, has exhilarated audiences since its premiere nearly a decade ago.

21st Century Choreography

A Robbins favorite and a Robbins rarity lead this program. Fancy Free, the first ballet he choreographed, instantly establishing him as a major talent in 1944, has remained a durable classic with its charming comic tale of three sailors on leave happily carousing in New York. By contrast, Rondo, from 1980, is a little-seen ballet made for two female dancers that features a winsome combination of classical steps and folk and popular dance idioms. Also on the bill are Justin Peck’s Solo, which made its premiere in the film directed by Sofia Coppola for the Company’s virtual Spring Gala in 2021, and the entrancing Balanchine leotard ballet Episodes.

After choreographing 22 works for New York City Ballet since 2012, Resident Choreographer Justin Peck creates his first full-evening work for the Company, set to the music of Aaron Copland. Providing designs for this exploration of America today is the painter and sculptor Jeffrey Gibson, who has often drawn on his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage for inspiration.

This program features four ballets encompassing the depth and variety of the Company's repertory through the years. Balanchine is represented by Allegro Brillante, an ever-exhilarating display of the choreographer’s unmatched mastery and delight in classical technique, and Walpurgisnacht Ballet, another exercise in classical virtuosity set to the famous music from Gounod’s Faust. Robbins’ popular West Side Story Suite is a dramatic distillation of themes and dances from the beloved 1957 musical. Christopher Wheeldon, formerly the Company’s first Resident Choreographer, brings us into the 21st Century with Liturgy, a quietly haunting pas de deux set to music by contemporary composer Arvo Pärt.

A quartet of Balanchine works, both beloved and comparatively rare, are gathered on this program. From 1972, Stravinsky Violin Concerto remains one of Balanchine’s Black & White leotard ballet masterworks, rarely absent from the repertory for long. By contrast, his Haieff Divertimento, created in 1947, returned to the repertory after a quarter-century absence in 2020. The five-part ballet combines classical steps with elements of popular American dance styles. Valse Fantaisie is a brief but sprightly classical dance set to selections of the Russian composer Glinka’s music, and rounding out the program is the effervescent Donizetti Variations, with its nimble choreography suggesting the influence of the great 19th-century Danish choreographer August Bournonville.

Join us for the Nutcracker Family Benefit on Saturday, December 10, 2022.
This annual holiday tradition will feature a special matinee performance of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker ® followed by a festive holiday party on the Promenade of the David H. Koch Theater.

The Nutcracker Family Benefit

During the holiday period, the entire Company is immersed in activities surrounding George Balanchine's The Nutcracker®. All 90 dancers, 62 musicians, 40 stagehands, and more than 125 children in two alternating casts from the School of American Ballet join forces to make each performance as magical as possible.

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker®

Ballets in two varied styles illuminate the breadth and diversity of Balanchine’s work. Episodes is among his greatest Black & White leotard ballets, set to the spiky music of Webern and originally created as part of a collaboration with the modern dance choreographer Martha Graham, but now performed as a pure Balanchine work. The sumptuous Vienna Waltzes is a feast for the eye and ear, and a perennial favorite since its premiere. Its five sections each feature a principal couple in elegant settings that recall the Austrian capital and its environs at the height of the city’s 19th-century prime.

All Balanchine II

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s personal and professional relationship with George Balanchine constituted one of the great artistic partnerships of the 20th Century. On this program, two Balanchine ballets are paired with two created by Jerome Robbins, also an ardent admirer of the composer. Apollo, Balanchine’s first major collaboration with Stravinsky, dates to 1928 and is the oldest dance in the repertory; by contrast, Symphony in Three Movements, a classic leotard ballet, was created more than 40 years later, in a distinctly different style. Robbins is represented by The Cage, an intense and enjoyably macabre dance about fierce female creatures, and Concertino, a more rarely seen pas de trois drawn from a larger work.

A beloved Balanchine favorite joins two world premieres and a solo dance by Justin Peck on this program honoring the Company’s storied past while looking to the future. Originally created for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947, Symphony in C, set to Bizet’s ebullient composition of the title, is among the most celebrated ballets of the 20th Century. Created in 2021 for the Company’s virtual Spring Gala, Peck’s Solo, a collaboration with Principal Dancer Anthony Huxley, makes its live stage debut. Completing the program are new dances by Gianna Reisen, who was the youngest choreographer in the Company’s history when she made her debut with Composer’s Holiday in 2017, and Kyle Abraham, whose first ballet for the Company, The Runaway, electrified audiences at its premiere in 2018.

We are thrilled to invite you to join us on Wednesday, September 28 in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Fall Fashion Gala. Since its inception in 2012, this beloved event has paired acclaimed choreographers with some of the fashion world’s most exciting talents and, in the process, has led to the creation of nearly 30 ballets that have reinvigorated the artform. This year’s event will honor New York City Ballet Vice Chair Sarah Jessica Parker for her vision and leadership of the Fall Fashion Gala, along with a decade of Fall Fashion Gala designers and choreographers for their exceptional creations.
The special program will include a world premiere by Gianna Reisen with costumes designed by Alejandro Gómez Palomo for Palomo Spain and a commissioned score by Solange Knowles, a world premiere by Kyle Abraham with costumes designed by Giles Deacon, the live performance premiere of Solo created by NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor, Justin Peck with a costume designed by Raf Simons, and an excerpt from the dazzling Symphony in C by the Company’s Co-Founder, George Balanchine.
This evening of dance and design will begin with an elegant cocktail reception at 5:30 PM hosted by Ruinart Champagne, followed by the gala program at 7 PM, and will conclude with a glittering Supper Ball at 9 PM.

Created for the Company’s landmark 1972 Stravinsky Festival, Balanchine’s Stravinsky Violin Concerto quickly established itself as a repertory favorite, a celebrated leotard ballet both elegant and at times frolicsome, featuring a pair of bravura pas de deux for two principal couples. Alexei Ratmansky turned to a fellow Russian, Dmitri Shostakovich, for his second ballet for the Company, Concerto DSCH, a high-energy classical ballet that has returned regularly since its premiere in 2008. Also an instant hit with audiences, Resident Choreographer Justin Peck’s Everywhere We Go, among his largest ballets, featuring 25 dancers, was Peck’s second collaboration with the eclectic contemporary composer Sufjan Stevens.

Balanchine turned to the Russian composer Glazounov for Raymonda Variations. Although the score derives from the titular 19th-century story ballet, Balanchine used the music to create a plotless classical work—a scintillating series of solos, pas de deux, and ensemble dances. Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, a perennial fan favorite and a staple of the international repertory, ranks among Balanchine’s most dazzling creations, despite its running time of less than ten minutes. It alternates on the program with Balanchine’s alternately playful and mysterious pas de deux Duo Concertant. And while it is not as well-known as many other dances Jerome Robbins choreographed to piano music, his Piano Pieces, also set to Tschaikovsky, is a connoisseur’s delight, mixing classical steps with a gentle suggestion of folk themes.

Masters at Work: Balanchine & Robbins

The season kicks off with a trio of classic Balanchine works that display the variety of his invention and musicality. Divertimento No. 15 is among the few ballets Balanchine choreographed to music by Mozart, and is celebrated for the delicacy and intricacy of its crystalline variations. As its name suggests, Scotch Symphony was designed as a tribute to the lush beauty of the Scottish Highlands, and evokes the mood and style of classical romantic ballets of the 19th Century. Rounding out the program is La Sonnambula, a gently dramatic and also deeply romantic work that spins a mysterious tale of a sleepwalker and the poet she bewitches.

All Balanchine I

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker

Balanchine’s multifaceted talent is showcased in a program uniting three classic works. Concerto Barocco, from 1941, is set to Bach’s Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, and features crystalline choreography for the two lead ballerinas, each representing the voice of one violin, as well as a male dancer and a small corps de ballet. For Allegro Brillante Balanchine returned to a favorite composer, Tschaikovsky, to create a scintillating dance that combines lyricism and buoyancy.

A program devoted to works set to music by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky is highlighted by two unique Jerome Robbins gems: The Cage, which depicts a swarm of insect-like female creatures descending upon their unwitting male prey, and Concertino, a trio that was originally performed as the third section of Robbins’ Four Chamber Works. Balanchine’s Danses Concertantes, a spirited ballet with richly detailed costumes and hints of commedia dell’arte-inspired humor, opens the program, and his classic leotard ballet Stravinsky Violin Concerto, one of Balanchine’s greatest achievements, brings the affair to a rousing finish.

The annual program celebrating Balanchine’s birthday traditionally features a world premiere, in this case the 25th dance from Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck, for which Dan Deacon will be providing a commissioned score. The program opens with Christopher Wheeldon’s From You Within Me, set to Arnold Schoenberg’s early work Verkläkte Nacht, featuring a cast of a dozen dancers and painter Kylie Manning’s atmospheric drops at the front and back of the stage. Balanchine is represented by one of his most strikingly enigmatic works, Variations pour une Porte et un Soupir, a pas de deux for a woman swathed in a huge, billowing skirt, personifying the “door” of the title, and a man as the “sigh,” illustrating the otherworldly Pierre Henry score.

The Company honors the centenary of Maria Tallchief’s birth with three Balanchine works created on the great ballerina. Tallchief danced in the 1952 premiere of Scotch Symphony, a romantic ballet in which Balanchine paid homage to the dramatic landscape and atmosphere of the Scottish Highlands. A pas de deux inspired by the full-length Sylvia returns to the repertory after 30 years, and features intricate classical steps that highlighted her spectacular technique. And Tallchief was also renowned for her performance in the title role of Firebird, an allegorical fantasy set to Stravinsky’s brilliant score.

Jerome Robbins’ intimate knowledge of Chopin’s piano works illuminates the delicate beauty of In the Night, set to the composer’s nocturnes and featuring the romantic interplay among three couples set against a backdrop evoking a starry night sky. Balanchine’s ever-popular leotard ballet Symphony in Three Movements ranks among the most exhilarating dances he created to the music of Stravinsky, with its driving energy matching the fierce pulse of the score. Rounding out the evening is a world premiere from Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky, his eighth dance commissioned by the Company.

Two plotless Balanchine classics and a narrative ballet from Christopher Wheeldon comprise this program. Divertimento No. 15 is a bravura series of variations marked by complex and captivating classical steps, while the ebullient Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux is a thrilling dance that showcases Balanchine’s ability to evoke a world of romance with just two dancers and less than ten minutes of music. For Carnival of the Animals, Wheeldon, employing a scenario written by the actor John Lithgow, was inspired by New York’s Museum of Natural History to create a delightful fantasy in which a young boy dreams that his family and friends have all been transformed into fauna.

Generally acknowledged as the quintessential classical ballet, and certainly the most popular, Swan Lake never fails to enchant audiences with its mythical tale of a lovelorn prince who falls under the spell of a swan, Odette, a young woman transfigured by the sinister Von Rotbart. The Company’s full-length production, first presented in 1999 and choreographed by longtime Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins, draws on the staging by the preeminent classical masters Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. But Martins’ version also highlights the Company’s matchless gift for dancing complex choreography at intoxicatingly brisk tempos.

Swan Lake

A feast for Balanchine devotees. The oldest Balanchine ballet in the repertory, the neoclassical masterwork Apollo, first staged in 1928, leads a bill that traces the choreographer’s work across an astonishing half-century. Also on the program is the exhilarating Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, a supremely stylish dance created to music originally written for Swan Lake.

Inspired by a Company engagement at the Edinburgh Festival and set to an evocative Mendelssohn score, Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony, for a lead couple and a corps de ballet, is a nod to the romantic tradition of ballet. Jerome Robbins’ enthralling Glass Pieces, a perennial favorite in the repertory, moves through moods to rise to a galvanizingly energetic finale. And while Justin Peck is celebrated for his high-energy ensemble works, Belles-Lettres reveals another aspect of his voice, with its series of gently lyrical pas de deux and solos steeped in an air of reflective romanticism.

Innovators & Icons I

A pair of Jerome Robbins ballets set to the music of Bach are featured alongside works by Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon. Robbins’ A Suite of Dances features a single male dancer—Mikhail Baryshnikov originated the role—interacting with the onstage cellist, creating a mood of friendly companionship. Brandenburg, Robbins’ final ballet, danced to four of the famed concertos of the title, is a series of pas de deux that evoke strikingly contrasting moods. Wheeldon’s After the Rain Pas de Deux has become one of his signature works, a transfixing dance that contains hints of spirituality and transcendence despite its seeming simplicity.

Innovators & Icons II

The 2025 Spring Gala highlights Balanchine’s fondness for the waltz with the monumental five-part Vienna Waltzes, featuring opulent settings, sumptuous costumes, and 50 dancers in dreamlike motion.

A supremely well-crafted ballet performed in tutus and set to the sparkling music of Mozart, Divertimento No. 15 illustrates Balanchine’s unsurpassed gift for exploring the variety and richness of classical choreography. Vienna Waltzes, a ballet in five parts set to music from Johann Strauss II, Franz Léhar, and Richard Strauss, is Balanchine’s variously hued tribute to the Austrian capital at its cultural apex in the 19th Century.

The ever-growing breadth of the repertory is illustrated in this program highlighting the work of three current dancemakers. Alexei Ratmansky’s Solitude debuted in the winter of 2024 to broad acclaim. Somber in its beauty, this elegiac ensemble work, with a moving lead role depicting a grieving father, is a rare dance set to the music of Gustav Mahler. Ratmansky, Russian-born but raised in Kyiv, dedicated this singular ballet “to the children of Ukraine, victims of the war.” The program also includes ballets from Caili Quan and Justin Peck, which debuted in the fall and winter, respectively.

In 1975 the Company presented a festival dedicated to the music of the French composer Maurice Ravel. To honor the 50th anniversary of the event, the Company offers this program featuring four works that had their premieres during the festival: Jerome Robbins’ playful In G Major, with sets and costumes by the Art Deco master Erté; Pavane, a solo work from Balanchine for a female dancer; Errante, returning from its lauded Spring 2024 revival; and Sonatine, a pas de deux marked by a lighthearted spirit of dancers at play. 

All Ravel

A program distinguished by its variety opens with Balanchine’s Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fée,’ choreographed to a Stravinsky symphonic suite. Kyle Abraham’s When We Fell was originally filmed and streamed during the pandemic, and here makes its live debut. Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Chiaroscuro, a ballet for six dancers from 1994, evokes the artistic term of its title through the interaction of light and shadow as well as diverging tempos, while Alexei Ratmansky’s Odesa features three couples, their interplay infused with hints of drama, and a corps de ballet, and is set to incidental music from the Russian film Sketches to Sunset that alternates between the ruminative and the rambunctious.

This specially curated performance is designed to provide a relaxed, inclusive environment where individuals with sensory processing challenges, including autism, can experience New York City Ballet. Slight modifications will include a relaxed entry/exit policy, adjustments to lighting and sound levels, designated break areas throughout the Theater, additional event staffing to assist with audience needs, and pre-visit resources, including a visual schedule. This one-time-only performance features three ballets by NYCB’s Founder George Balanchine.

Sensory-Friendly Performance

Concluding a 25-year career with NYCB, Andrew Veyette, a principal dancer long-recognized for his dynamic artistry and charisma, takes his final bow at this special matinee performance. The one-time-only program will include the Third Movement from Glass Pieces along with Chiaroscuro and Stars and Stripes.

Andrew Veyette Farewell

Balanchine’s affection for Shakespeare’s scintillating comedy dated to his childhood, when he appeared as an elf in a St. Petersburg production. His abiding love of the play culminated in this 1962 ballet—the first original full-length work he created for the Company—which displayed his often-unheralded gift for characterization.

New York City Ballet

Nov 29, 2024 - Jan 4, 2025

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker

Jan 21 - Feb 1, 2025

All Balanchine I

Jan 22 - Feb 4, 2025

All Stravinsky

Jan 29 - Feb 2, 2025

New Combinations

5 - 18 Feb, 2025

All Balanchine II

11 - 12 Oct, 2024

Contemporary Choreography

Oct 9, 2024

Fall Fashion Gala

New York City Ballet