New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
Peter Martins is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with the New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and John Taras as balletmaster in 1981. He retired from dancing in 1983, having achieved the rank of danseur noble, becoming Co-Ballet Master-In-Chief with Robbins. From 1990 until January 2018, he was solely responsible for artistic leadership of City Ballet.
Helgi Tomasson is artistic director and principal choreographer for San Francisco Ballet, and a former professional ballet dancer. Since assuming leadership of San Francisco Ballet, he has helped transform the company from a respected regional troupe to one of the world's great classical ballet companies. He is originally from Iceland.
Tarantella is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Grande Tarantelle, Op. 67, reconstructed and orchestrated for piano and orchestra by Hershy Kay in July 1954. The premiere took place January 7, 1964, at the City Center of Music and Drama, New York.
Les Noces is a ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins, subsequently New York City Ballet balletmaster, to the 1923 version of Stravinsky's eponymous music for American Ballet Theatre with sets by Oliver Smith under the supervision of Rosaria Sinisi, costumes by Patricia Zipprodt, and lighting by Jennifer Tipton.
Noah and the Flood is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine, co-founder and balletmaster of the New York City Ballet, and Jacques d'Amboise to Stravinsky's The Flood (1962). The premiere took place June 11, 1982, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. The text was chosen and arranged by Robert Craft from Genesis, the Te Deum and Sanctus hymns, and the 15th century York and Chester miracle plays.
Sean Lavery, was a former principal dancer, balletmaster, and assistant to the balletmaster in chief at New York City Ballet. He was a répétiteur for the George Balanchine Trust and a former faculty member at the School of American Ballet.
Symphony in C, originally titled Le Palais de Cristal, is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Georges Bizet's Symphony in C (1855). The music of the ballet, which Bizet wrote at the age of 17 while studying with Charles Gounod at the Paris Conservatory, was lost and only rediscovered and published in 1933.
West Side Story Suite is a ballet made by New York City Ballet balletmaster Jerome Robbins to the 1957 music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim and extracted from the eponymous musical which he had choreographed, with scenery by Oliver Smith, costumes by Irene Sharaff and lighting by Jennifer Tipton. The premiere took place at New York State Theater on Thursday, May 18, 1995. Nikolaj Hübbe and Jock Soto, both members of the original cast, as well as Peter Boal all chose to include West Side Story Suite in their farewell performances at City Ballet.
Symphony in Three Movements is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine for the opening night of the New York City Ballet Stravinsky Festival, based on Igor Stravinsky's 1942–45 Symphony in Three Movements, with lighting by Mark Stanley. The premiere took place on June 18, 1972, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Watermill is a ballet by New York City Ballet balletmaster Jerome Robbins to Teiji Ito's eponymous music from the previous year with costumes by Patricia Zipprodt, lighting by Jennifer Tipton and décor by Robbins in association with Davie Reppa. The premiere took place on Thursday, February 3, 1972, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
Opus 19/The Dreamer is a ballet made by New York City Ballet balletmaster Jerome Robbins to Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, in D major with costumes by Ben Benson and lighting by Ronald Bates. The premiere took place on June 14, 1979, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. Peter Boal danced it with Wendy Whelan as part of his June 2005 farewell performance at City Ballet.
I'm Old Fashioned is a ballet made by New York City Ballet balletmaster Jerome Robbins to Morton Gould's adaptation of a theme by Jerome Kern, “I'm Old Fashioned,” to a Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth sequence from the film You Were Never Lovelier. The premiere took place on Thursday, June 16, 1983, at New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. It was titled Variations on "I'm Old Fashioned" at its first performance, but the name was truncated to its current form the following week.
Other Dances is a ballet made by New York City Ballet balletmaster Jerome Robbins on Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov to the music of Chopin:
Ragtime (II) is the third ballet made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's Ragtime for Eleven Instruments (1918). The premiere took place on July 15, 1966, at Philharmonic Hall, New York. The first City Ballet performance was on January 17, 1967, at New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. The previous ballets made to Stravinsky's Ragtime were Ragtime (I) for City Ballet in 1960 and one of a number of "informal little things" made in St. Petersburg in 1922.
Ragtime (I) is the second of three ballets made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's 1918 Ragtime for Eleven Instruments; with scenery by Robert Drew previously used for Lew Christensen's 1947 work for Ballet Society, Blackface; costumes by Karinska and lighting by David Hays. The premiere took place on December 7, 1960, at City Center of Music and Drama, conducted by Robert Irving, as part of a quartet of works titled Jazz Concert, together with dances by Todd Bolender's Creation of the World, Francisco Moncion's Les biches and John Taras' Ebony Concerto. Balanchine's 1966 Ragtime (II) was also made for City Ballet; his previous ballet to Stravinsky's Ragtime was one of a number of "informal little things" made in St. Petersburg in 1922.
Requiem Canticles is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to eponymous music from 1966 by Igor Stravinsky in memoriam Martin Luther King, Jr. It received a single performance on May 2, 1968, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, conducted by Robert Irving with Margaret Wilson, contralto, and John Ostendorf, bass. Costumes and candelabra were by Rouben Ter-Arutunian and lighting by Ronald Bates, the corps de ballet in long white robes bearing a three-branched candelabra. A lone woman searches among them and at the end a figure in purple representing Martin Luther King, Jr., is raised aloft.
Requiem Canticles is a ballet made for New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival by balletmaster Jerome Robbins to eponymous music from 1966 by Igor Stravinsky. The premiere took place June 25, 1972, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
Ronald Bates was an American ballet lighting designer, particularly for the New York City Ballet.
Paul Boos is an American dancer, balletmaster, archivist, and répétiteur. He danced with New York City Ballet from 1977 until 1990 before becoming a guest teacher for the Royal Danish Ballet. In addition to teaching internationally, he is part of a select group of répétiteurs sanctioned by the Balanchine Trust to set the ballets of George Balanchine and the Project Associate to the George Balanchine Foundation's Interpreters Archive.