Mercurial Manoeuvres
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35, by Dmitri Shostakovich

Choreography by Christopher Wheeldon

This witty and cheerful piece for 21 dancers opens with an explosive male variation -- a series of bravura leaps performed to a trumpet solo -- that is followed by rapidly shifting ensemble work for a corps of women which materializes from behind gauze panels on each side of the stage. After a quietly mesmerizing pas de deux of unfolding turns, arrested leaps and intricate lifts, the ballet ends with squadrons of dancers flying on and off the stage in ever-changing directions, patterns, and diagonals. An early reviewer compared the work's intricate geometry to the paintings of Kandinsky and Malevich.

The score by Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) fell in and out of favor with the Soviet government as the composer's creative development and fortunes were often determined by political events in the Soviet Union.

Christopher Wheeldon, a former soloist with New York City Ballet, retired from dancing in May 2000. He was born in Somerset, England, and joined The Royal Ballet in 1991, the same year he won the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne Competition. In 1993, he was invited to become a member of the NYCB corps de ballet.

(Average Length 23 min.)



Lifecasting

Op. 1 (Third Movement) (2000 and 2001) by Ryoji Ikeda
Triple Quartet (1998) by Steve Reich
Choreography Douglas Lee

Douglas Lee, a two-time contributor to The New York City Ballet's Choreographic Institute, opens his first full scale ballet for NYCB on a dimly lit stage where a group of 11 dancers stand posed. The title of the ballet refers to the three-dimensional representations cast and molded on live people by sculptors. The dancers are arranged on the stage like sculptures, some caught in mid-movement and others motionless.

Ryoji Ikeda, a Japanese minimalist electronic composer, is considered one of the leading figures among computer-based musicians exploring the aesthetic possibilities opened up by digital production technologies. Released through his own CCI Recordings, the U.K.-based Touch label, and Staalplaat, among others, Ikeda's music engages the digital recording and production process directly, playing up subtle glitches and interruptions typically edited out of that process and combining them with profoundly complex and disjointed collages of samples, pure-tone electronics, and heavily treated digital noise.

Steve Reich (b. 1936), a minimalist, was a student of drumming and philosophy and also studied music at Juilliard with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti. He received a master's degree in music from Mills College, where he studied with Luciano Berio and Darius Milhaud. He has toured all over the world with his own ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, playing his unique compositions, pushing the boundaries of the classical genre, and drawing from many styles, including traditional African and Asian music, jazz, electronic music, and traditional Jewish songs.


Slaughter on Tenth Avene
From On Your Toes (1936) by Richard Rodgers
Choreography George Balanchine

Balanchine originally choreographed Slaughter on Tenth Avenue in 1936 for the musical On Your Toes, in which Ray Bolger played The Hoofer and Tamara Geva portrayed The Stripper. The show was a parody of Broadway, Russian ballet, and the mob. Briefly told, it is the story of a jealous Russian premier danseur who hires a mobster to kill a rival during the premiere of a new ballet.

Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) met Lorenz Hart in 1918 and began to collaborate with him on the lyrics for popular songs. Their first success was Garrick Gaities in 1925. Between 1926 and 1930, Rodgers and Hart were among America's most popular songwriters, producing many songs for musicals and revues on Broadway and in London's West End.

Hershy Kay (1919-1981) established himself as a preeminent orchestrator of musicals with Leonard Bernstein's On The Town in 1944. His works for the ballet include Cakewalk, Clowns, Western Symphony, The Concert, Stars and Stripes, Who Cares?, and Union Jack; his works for the musical theater include Peter Pan, Once Upon a Mattress, Candide, A Chorus Line, Evita and Barnum

(Average Length 23 min.)