Travel Tip: Dance in United States
New York City Ballet

Among the highlights of the New York City Ballet’s spring 2005 season  will be the annual Spring Gala, on Wednesday, 4 May, which will feature world premiere ballets by Albert Evans, Peter Martins and Christopher Wheeldon, and a New York City Ballet premiere by Benjamin Millepied.

The opening week of the season includes the Company’s first performances of Jerome Robbins’ N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz. This piece is set to music by Robert Prince and was created for a small company, Ballets: U.S.A., that Robbins brought to the first Spoleto Festival in Italy.

Other season highlights include the return to the repertory of Balanchine’s Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fée, created for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival. Robbins’ Concertino, created for the 1982 Stravinsky Festival, returns to the repertory after an absence of nine years.

The new ballet, An American in Paris, is a world premiere by Resident Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. It is set to George Gershwin’s well-known composition and features set designs by Adrianne Lobel.

Several other ballets that have premiered in the past year have returned this spring, including Boris Eifman’s Musagète, Mr. Martins’ Chichester Psalms and Octet, and Mr. Wheeldon’s After the Rain.

Overall, the repertory season features 17 ballets by George Balanchine, including Apollo, choreographed in 1928; Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3, choreographed in 1970; and Union Jack, choreographed in 1976. Jewels, which premiered in 1967. There are 10 all-Balanchine programs, as well as seven performances of Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The season also include eight ballets by Jerome Robbins, including The Goldberg Variations, choreographed in 1971; Opus 19/ The Dreamer, choreographed in 1979; and West Side Story Suite, which premiered in 1995. There are two all-Robbins programs during the season.