New York City Ballet hosted its Spring Gala on May 8th, featuring a special one-time-only programme designed by NYCB's longest-serving ballet directors, Peter Martins, to mark the 50th anniversary at the Lincoln Center, which opened its doors in 1964 as the New York State Theatre - now the David H. Koch Theatre.
The one night only gala performance pays tribute to the Company's extraordinary history and was set to include works from the theatres' opening night in 1964, acknowledging the leading dancers who were a part of that memorable performance.
Actress and singer Kristen Bell performed an excerpt from the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1945 Broadway musical, 'Carousel'. Kirsten is best known as the voice of Princess Anna in Disney's most recent Oscar-winning animated film ‘Frozen’. She made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 2001, and has also appeared in numerous films and television projects, including the title characters in Veronica Mars and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Bell, studied musical theatre at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
The performance included the world premiere of ballet ‘Everywhere we go’ by 26 year old choreographer and NYCB Soloist Justin Peck with music by Sufjan Stevens. In 2012, Peck, choreographed a ballet inspired by Stevens’s 2001 album, Enjoy Your Rabbit. NYCB asked Stevens to create an original score for a second production, which the pair collaboratively developed. During a recent interview by Elizabeth Inglese, for Vogue Magazine. Stevens admitted that the hadn't previously seen much ballet and in fact didn't really like it. Stating ‘I still kind of hate the sappy romantic narrative ballets, but understand that tradition is important.' Stevens revealed during his interview that Peck, urged him to see certain modern Balanchine, and ‘once I had a grasp of the vernacular, I did fall in love with it.’
The result, 'Everywhere We Go', Starring Tiler Peck and Amar Ramasar, can be previewed on the NYCB website- which is probably the nearest us in the UK will get to seeing it unfortunately!
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