New York City Ballet’s Winter Season begins on Tuesday, January 21 and runs through Sunday, March 1. The Winter Season will open with nine all Balanchine performances consisting of two different programs. The first, an all Balanchine/Stravinsky program, will feature Danses Concertantes, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, and Stravinsky Violin Concerto; the second all Balanchine program will feature Allegro Brillante (music by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky), La Source (music by Léo Delibes), and Firebird (music by Igor Stravinsky).
The Winter Season will be highlighted by two world premiere ballets. For his sixth work for NYCB, Alexei Ratmansky will use a selection of pieces from “Voices and Piano,” the cycle of works for piano and recorded voice by the experimental Austrian composer Peter Ablinger. Ratmansky’s new ballet will premiere on Thursday, January 30 as part of NYCB’s annual New Combinations Evening, and will be performed on a program with Christopher Wheeldon’s Polyphonia, Justin Peck’s Bright, and Jerome Robbins’ Opus 19/The Dreamer. The second premiere, a new work by Peck, NYCB Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor, will be set to a commissioned score by New York-based composer Nico Muhly, their first collaboration for NYCB. It will debut on Wednesday, February 26 on a program with Jerome Robbins’ In G Major and Wheeldon’s DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse.
Other highlights of the Winter Season will include a restoration of the “Variations” solo from George Balanchine’s Episodes, which was created in 1959 for the legendary dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor. Taylor was then a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, which collaborated with NYCB on the original production of Episodes. NYCB last performed this section of the ballet in 1989, and will perform it as part of the Winter Season in tribute to Taylor, who passed away in 2018. Michael Trusnovec, a recently retired star of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, will appear as a guest artist with NYCB for the first two performances, February 6 and 9. Additional performances of Episodes will be given on February 25 and 29, and the ballet will be performed on a program with Balanchine’s Haieff Divertimento, last performed by NYCB in 1994; Robbins’ Concertino, last performed by NYCB in 2006; and Peck’s Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes.
The Winter Season will also include 12 performances, from February 14 through 23, of Peter Martins’ full- length production of Swan Lake, which features Tschaikovsky’s score, sets and costumes by the late Danish artist Per Kirkeby, and lighting by NYCB’s Director of Lighting Mark Stanley.
The New York City Ballet has more than 90 dancers on its roster, as well as the 62-piece New York City Ballet Orchestra under the leadership of Music Director Andrew Litton. All performances will take place at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, which is located at West 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue. Tickets are available online at nycballet.com, by phone at 212-496-0600, or in person at the David H. Koch Theater Box Office.
2020 Janice Levin Dancer Award
On the opening night of the season, January 21, the Janice Levin Dancer Award will be presented onstage to corps de ballet dancer Baily Jones by NYCB Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford. Created in 2000 by a generous endowment gift by the late Mrs. Levin, the award is bestowed annually on a promising member of NYCB’s corps de ballet. Mrs. Levin, who served on the Board of Directors for both NYCB and The School of American Ballet (SAB), was a stalwart supporter of young artists at both organizations.
Baily Jones was born in Holladay, Utah, and began her dance training at the age of six at the Ballet West Academy in Salt Lake City, Utah. She attended the 2009 and 2011 summer courses at SAB, before enrolling as a full-time student in 2011. She was named an apprentice with NYCB in August 2014 and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in July 2015. Since joining NYCB, she has performed featured roles in George Balanchine’s Coppélia (Waltz of the Golden Hours), George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Dewdrop, Marzipan, Dolls), Scotch Symphony, and Symphony in C (Third Movement); Nicolas Blanc’s Mothership; and Peter Martins’ Swan Lake (Neopolitan) and The Sleeping Beauty (Courage, Ruby). She has also originated corps de ballet roles in Gianna Reisen’s Composer’s Holiday and Judah, and Justin Peck’s The Most Incredible Thing and Principia.
Jones was a recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise in 2014. In PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center broadcast of “Curtain Up: The School of American Ballet Workshop,” which first aired in 2014, she appears in a featured role in George Balanchine’s Serenade.
