Gianna Reisen, NYCB’s youngest commissioned choreographer to date, makes a splash with her first work for the Company, bringing refreshing vivacity to the stage through fleet-footed choreography set to a violin and piano interpretation of Lukas Foss’ Three American Pieces.

Gianna Reisen’s Composer’s Holiday is set to Lukas Foss’ Three American Pieces for Violin and Piano. (Reisen’s ballet takes its title from the eponymous third piece of Foss’ score for two solo musicians.) The ballet for 12 dancers features costumes by American designer Virgil Abloh and lighting by Mark Stanley. A 2017 graduate of the School of American Ballet and currently a member of L.A. Dance Project, Reisen participated in choreography workshops at SAB and at the New York Choreographic Institute before she was commissioned by the Company in what would be her first ballet for a professional company. Reisen is the youngest choreographer to make a ballet for NYCB. Her second work for NYCB, Judah, premiered in 2018.

Liturgy, this contemplative pas de deux has a hushed, mystical quality as two dancers separate and return to one another with ever increasing intensity before disappearing into the darkness together. 

Arvo Pärt, an Estonian composer born in 1935, has created several versions of Fratres, including this one, for violin, strings, and percussion. The title of the piece, which means “Brothers,” and the religious solemnity of the music bring to mind services in a medieval monastery. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon has frequently been drawn to the music of contemporary composers. He used Pärt’s music for another piece, After the Rain, and created a trio of ballets set to music by György Ligeti, a Hungarian composer who died in 2006. Like these composers, Wheeldon uses a classical foundation to create works that are firmly modern in their feel and resonance.

Layering Franck's lyrical score with Mary Katrantzou's intricately embroidered lace lettered garments, Belles-Lettres is one of Peck’s most amorous ballets, replete with swooning pas de deux that build to an emotional climax.

With a cast of nine dancers, Belles-Lettres is NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor Justin Peck’s seventh ballet for the Company. Created for the 2014 Fall Gala, Belles-Lettres features costumes by London-based Greek fashion designer Mary Katrantzou and lighting by Mark Stanley. Set to César Franck’s Solo de piano avec accompagnement de quintette à cordes, the ballet marks the first time that Franck’s music has been included in the NYCB repertory.

Music:

Solo de piano avec accompagnement de quintette à cordes

Adding to her growing presence in the Company’s repertory, NYC-based postmodern choreographer Pam Tanowitz follows her recent digital work Solo for Russell: Sites 1-5 with her second main stage commission, a new ballet set to Ted Hearne’s sonic patchwork for string ensemble, Law of Mosaics.