{"id":136948,"date":"2026-02-18T02:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136948\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T02:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:33:18","slug":"justin-peck-and-alexei-ratmansky-oversee-the-499th-and-500th-original-works-at-new-york-city-ballet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136948\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Peck and Alexei Ratmansky Oversee the 499th and 500th Original Works at New York City Ballet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tClassic Arts Features<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Justin Peck and Alexei Ratmansky Oversee the 499th and 500th Original Works at New York City Ballet<\/p>\n

Peck is up first with The Wind-Up, followed by Ratmansky\u2019s The Naked King.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Alexei Ratmansky and Justin Peck<\/p>\n

More than 77 years after the founding of New York City Ballet, the Company\u2019s 2026 Winter Season holds the remarkable milestone of two landmark world premieres\u2014the 499th and 500th original ballets created for NewYork City Ballet. The 499th work will be Resident Choreographer Justin Peck<\/a>\u2019s The Wind-Up, premiering on January 29\u2013February 7. Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky\u2019s The Naked King, premiering February 5\u201325, will be the 500th.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a whole universe here and there\u2019s so much to be in conversation with,\u201d says Peck, about NYCB\u2019s storied original repertory. \u201cThe fact the Company was founded to cultivate new choreography\u2014that it\u2019s not only a priority, but part of its mission\u2014generates a special energy. The dancers here really value the process of making a new ballet, and that spirit keeps the work relevant for the artists and also for the audience, and it\u2019s why the Company continues to thrive,\u201d he says. \u201cThank God it exists.”<\/p>\n

\u201cNYCB\u2019s Balanchine style of dancing is more than just specific ballet technique\u2014it\u2019s a whole philosophy that includes different musicality and presentation, different work habits, and a different sense of what ballet actually is,\u201d says Ratmansky. \u201cThese numbers prove the unique place NYCB occupies in the world of ballet art, and it\u2019s probably the best historical lineage imaginable to be associated with, isn\u2019t it? A true honor.”<\/p>\n

As the Company prepared for the winter season, each choreographer previewed their approach to their world premieres. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJustin Peck\u2019s The Wind-Up<\/p>\n

Justin Peck\u2019s world premiere will be set to the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven\u2019s third symphony, the Eroica. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible music, and it holds a pivotal place in music history, right at the transition between the classical era and the romantic era. So it\u2019s this big bridge that carries music forward, that pushes the form into new territory while still honoring it,\u201d says Peck, who has held the position of NYCB Resident Choreographer since 2014. At NYCB, Beethoven\u2019s music has been used in the repertory, although on rare occasion; Balanchine called choreographing to Beethoven \u201cimpossible\u201d and felt that the composer\u2019s work should stand alone in its perfection. Peck understands this position, but is invigorated to try. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s not so much a provocation, but a curiosity. I feel that with my residency, my role is meant to challenge whatever the norms are, a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The heroic nature of the symphony was born from Beethoven\u2019s despair at the decline of his hearing, and Peck connected the reality of confronting one\u2019s own mortality to the heroic physical struggle that embodies a dancer\u2019s life. \u201cIt\u2019s a constant battle for the dancer to maintain their instrument. In a way, they\u2019re having to fight their own facility, to be able to do what they do so brilliantly, to perform at this Olympian level. The choreography definitely has this quality of pushing the dancers to go further than they\u2019ve ever gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peck chose to work with Reid Bartelme<\/a> and Harriet Jung<\/a> on the costume design, and Brandon Stirling Baker on lighting design, all longtime collaborators. \u201cThere\u2019s something really special about building those relationships through the act of making things. They\u2019re my earliest collaborators, and I wanted to streamline everything as much as possible to really focus on the choreography and the music,\u201d he says about his 26th work for NYCB. \u201cThe ballet itself is its own fireworks show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlexei Ratmansky\u2019s The Naked King<\/p>\n

Alexei Ratmansky is drawn to little known ballet scores\u2014as he explains, \u201cmusic written for dancing has this very specific dansant quality that is often missing in other music\u201d\u2014and Jean Fran\u00e7aix\u2019s Le Roi Nu, originally written for Serge Lifar\u2019s 1936 Paris Opera Ballet production, is rarely performed. Ratmansky, who has used Fran\u00e7aix\u2019s musical arrangements for works forThe Australian Ballet and The Royal Ballet, but has not previously choreographed to Fran\u00e7aix\u2019s own compositions, describes the composer\u2019s style as \u201cwitty and rhythmically complex but still melodic, almost Stravinskian in its neoclassicism\u2014really good for dancing.\u201d Ratmansky also chose the work for its narrative by Hans Christian Andersen<\/a> (known in America as The Emperor\u2019s New Clothes), which he calls \u201chilarious, and very relevant today.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the ballet, Ratmansky, who has held the position of NYCB Artist in Residence since 2023, is working with Resident Lighting Designer Mark Stanley\u2014\u201cmy dear trusted collaborator\u2014with him I don\u2019t need to worry about anything,\u201d as well as with costume and set designer Santo Loquasto<\/a>, renowned for his collaborations with choreographers including Jerome Robbins<\/a>, Paul Taylor<\/a>, and Twyla Tharp<\/a>. Following their previous collaboration on Ratmansky\u2019s The Tempest for American Ballet Theatre<\/a> in 2013, \u201cI was eager to work him again,\u201d says Ratmansky. \u201cHe is a master.\u201d<\/p>\n

The premiere, with its narrative framework, will be unlike any of the previous eight works that Ratmansky has created for NYCB. \u201cI am curious to see how the dancers and the audience will respond.”<\/p>\n

Visit\u00a0NYCBallet.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Classic Arts Features Justin Peck and Alexei Ratmansky Oversee the 499th and 500th Original Works at New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-136948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}