For the conclusion of its five-week, 2020 digital fall season, New York City Ballet will present a festival of new choreography featuring five World Premiere films, one launching each night from Tuesday 27 October until Saturday 31 October 31.
The first four premieres were choreographed by Sidra Bell, Andrea Miller, Jamar Roberts, and Pam Tanowitz and feature NYCB dancers performing on the campus of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the home of New York City Ballet.
The films have been directed by Ezra Hurwitz with cinematography by Jon Chema. Bell, Miller, and Roberts are working with NYCB for the first time; and Tanowitz is making her second work for the Company. The works by Bell, Roberts, and Tanowitz will also feature music performed and recorded by members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra.
The finale of the festival will be a film directed and choreographed by NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck, set to new version of songwriter and composer Chris Thile's Thank You, New York, created especially for the occasion. Peck's work will feature four NYCB dancers filmed at several locations around New York City, with cinematography by Jody Lee Lipes, who directed Ballet 422, the 2014 documentary film about Peck and his work with NYCB.
The films will be released at 8pm each evening and will be available free-of-charge on NYCB's YouTube channel, Facebook page and website. The premieres will be followed by a discussion featuring the choreographers and some of the other artists who participated in the making of the pieces.
NYCB Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan, who spearheads the Company's artistic programming efforts, said,
We are extremely excited to present these new works during the digital fall season. Creating a new ballet repertory has been one of the hallmarks of NYCB since its inception in 1948, and with these five remarkable choreographers, we will continue to build and expand that extraordinary body of work.
Schedule
Tuesday 27 October at 8pm
NEW WORK BY SIDRA BELL
pixelation in a wave (Within Wires)
Original score by Dennis Bell (pixelation in a wave (Within Wires)) (Commissioned by New York City Ballet)
Choreography by Sidra Bell
Directed by Ezra Hurwitz
Director of Photography Jon Chema
Costumes styled by Caitlin Taylor
“The exquisitely tenuous correspondence between structural and human forms.”
Dancers Ghaleb Kayali, Emily Kikta, Mira Nadon, Peter Walker
Violin Michael Roth, Violin Lydia Hong, Viola Katharina Kang, Cello Eugene Moye
Wednesday 28 October at 8pm
NEW WORK BY PAM TANOWITZ
Solo for Russell: Sites 1-5
Music by Alfred Schnittke (Klingende Buchstaben For Solo Cello)
Choreography by Pam Tanowitz with Russell Janzen
Directed by Ezra Hurwitz
Director of Photography Jon Chema
Costumes by Reid Bartleme and Harriet Jung
Dancer Russell Janzen
Cello Ann Kim
Thursday 29 October at 8pm
NEW WORK BY ANDREA MILLER
new song
Music by Victor Jara (“Manifesto”)
Choreography by Andrea Miller
Directed by Ezra Hurwitz
Director of Photography Jon Chema
Dancers Harrison Coll, Unity Phelan, Indiana Woodward, Sebastian Villarini-Velez
Friday 30 October at 8pm
NEW WORK BY JAMAR ROBERTS
Water Rite
Music by Ambrose Akinmusire (“Inflatedbyspinning”)
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Directed by Ezra Hurwitz
Director of Photography Jon Chema
Dancer Victor Abreu
Violin Michael Roth, Violin Lydia Hong, Viola Katharina Kang, Cello Eugene Moye, Bass Ron Wasserman, Flute Scott Kemsley
Saturday 31 October at 8pm
NEW WORK BY JUSTIN PECK
Thank You, New York
Music by Chris Thile (“Thank You, New York”)
Directed and choreographed by Justin Peck
Director of Photography Jody Lee Lipes
Costumes styled by LaJeromeny Brown
Dancers Christopher Grant, Sara Mearns, Georgina Pazcoguin, Taylor Stanley
Photo: NYCB, new Justin Peck film with Sara Mearns
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
