Search results for: justin peck

Why Are Ballet Costumes So…De-enhancing?

Sometimes I wish costumes onstage were more like Halloween. I mean at least when you’re trick-or-treating, you get to choose your own costume according to your own fantasies. You don’t go around in your group all wearing the same costume. I have two complaints about most of the costumes I see in new ballets: all […]

Why Are Ballet Costumes So…De-enhancing?

Sometimes I wish costumes onstage were more like Halloween. I mean at least when you’re trick-or-treating, you get to choose your own costume according to your own fantasies. You don’t go around in your group all wearing the same costume. I have two complaints about most of the costumes I see in new ballets: all […]

New York City Ballet: "Year of the Rabbit"

David H. Koch Theater Lincoln Center New York, NY Performance reviewed: Oct. 6, 2012 (matinee)   New York City Ballet wisely commissioned corps member Justin Peck, just 25, to create Year of the Rabbit (Selections from the Chinese Zodiac), named in part after song cycle selections by the indie composer Sufjan Stevens. Although the ballet’s […]

The Pleasant Shock of Breaking Ballet Conventions

There are unspoken conventions in ballet that no one ever challenges. I mean, you don’t just lie down in the middle of a performance. But New York City Ballet corps member Justin Peck, in his world premiere, Year of the Rabbit, had eight dancers do just that. On their backs, with half their bodies extending […]

Year of the Rabbit Premieres Tomorrow

There’s much to anticipate about tomorrow’s premiere of Justin Peck’s Year of the Rabbit: It’s the New York City Ballet corps member’s first work for the company on its home stage at the Koch Theater. Indie-pop darling Sufjan Stevens composed its score (with the arrangement by Michael Atkinson). And the works sharing the program are […]

Plugged In

Photographer Jordan Matter’s Dancers Among Us is full of images like this one of Jeffrey Smith, former member of Paul Taylor Dance Company.   BOOKS Dancers Among Us: A Celebration of Joy in the Everyday By Jordan Matter. NYC. Workman Publishing Company, Inc. 2012. 231 pages. Illustrated. Paper. $17.95. Inspired by his toddler son’s wide-eyed […]

"I don't have to explain why I change things."

In the article “Balanchine and Stravinsky: An Olympian Apollo,” which ran in Dance Magazine‘s April 1981 issue, Balanchine, in response to outcry over his changes to Apollo‘s choreography, told John Gruen, “I don’t have to explain why I change things. I can do with my ballets whatever I want. They are mine…I made them, and […]

The Fresh Sights of Fall

A guide to the new season     BodyCartography Project, coming to Walker Art Center in October. Photo by Gene Pittman, Courtesy WAC.   This fall, a vibrant mix of voices will be “heard” onstage through movement, memorials, and mile-markers. From an array of world premieres hitting theaters across the U.S., to tantalizing festivals celebrating […]