Award-winning New York City Ballet principal dancer, choreographer, actress, author, curator and designer, Tiler Peck returns with her dazzling love letter to dance, Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends.
After its sold-out world premiere in New York, hit season at Sadler’s Wells in 2023 and celebrated US tour, Olivier Award-nominee and two-time UK National Dance Awards winner Peck is back with some of today’s most exciting dance artists for a virtuosic and innovative programme.
The programme begins with The Barre Project, Blake Works II, a piece originally created for film with music by James Blake that marked the first creative partnership between Peck and choreographer William Forsythe. Peck’s own Thousandth Orange, set to live music by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw is next, followed by West Coast legend Alonzo King with his electric pas de deux, Swift Arrow. The show closes with the irresistible New York City Centre commission Time Spell, a collaboration between Peck and tap dance icon Michelle Dorrance, with Emmy-nominated Jillian Meyers and a powerhouse cast.
Review by Stephen Gilchrist
“Science is how we live, but the Arts are why we live,” I was once told by my chemistry master eons ago. It is something I have never forgotten because it is so true. I would like to think that my teacher had in mind ‘Turn it Out,’ a special occasion and a privilege to have had the opportunity to see it.
Tiler Peck is a 37 years old prima ballerina with New York City Ballet since 2009. As a child she debuted on Broadway in ‘The Music Man,’ was Tony nominated in ‘’On the Town’ and has since has danced and choregraphed groundbreaking works which display her background in classical and contemporary ballet fused with jazz dance.
‘Turn it Out’ is an evening of four works all of which are an exposition of style, virtuosity and astonishing movement by Peck and her company of fourteen. If anything the evening provides a complete justification of ‘why we live.’ The beauty of it almost, more than once, brought me to tears.
‘The Barre Project, Blake Works II’ is the opener with Peck and three male dancers. It is a suite of dances, performed against ‘blacks’ and bare ballet barre, and choreographed by William Forsythe. It started as a pandemic-era digital dance film hailed as a “half-hour of perfection”. Now it is an exhibition of effortless blending traditional ballet technique with modern, percussive music by James Blake, and led by Peck, in a high energy and joyful improvisation on the ballet barre. Peck herself has the style, the elegance and the mobility of a Margot Fonteyn at her peak.
Second up was ‘Thousandth Orange’ -choreographed by Peck- a colourful intimate ballet for six dancers and set to live music by Caroline Shaw (Violin, viola, cello and piano). Its fugue of elegant simplicity, pretty “sherbet” colours (costumed by Harriet Jung and Reid Bartelme), and interconnected movements provide images of infinite beauty.
Next came ‘Swift Arrow’ a short duet for Peck and Roman Mejia (who worked almost as hard as Peck and appeared in three of the show’s ballets), choreographed by Alonzo King to a live piano score by jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran. Its intimacy displays the deep relationship of the dancers to each other and to dance itself.
Finally came ‘Time Spell,’ an exuberant celebration of dance, classical, contemporary, jazz and all framed by some outstanding tap, choreographed by Michelle Dorrance, Jillian Meyers, and Peck and to music by Aaron Marcellus Sanders. and Penelope Wendlandt. The company of eleven includes Dorrance, Meyers and Peck, together with two musician/vocalists. It is a life affirming party, a mix of individual, improvised-looking, and unison movement, with Peck dancing on pointe, and featuring ‘grand allégro’ leaps, which bring gasps of astonishment at the versatility and fluidity of this company,
The performance was beautifully lit by Brandon Stirling Baker, providing pools of light, never distracting but always enhancing the performers’ sparkling moves.
This was a thrilling evening to treasure and incredibly special. Peck believes dance can heal, and I agree because however badly life has treated you and however hurt you think you are, an evening like this leaves you walking on air and believing that this, indeed, makes life worth living.
Cast
Chun Wai Chan
Michelle Dorrance
Jovani Furlan
Christopher Grant
Lex Ishimoto
Lauren Lovette
Brooklyn Mack
Aaron Marcellus
Roman Mejia
Jillian Meyers
Tiler Peck
Quinn Starner
Byron Tittle
Penelope Wendtlandt
Creative Team / Programme Creatives
The Barre Project, Blake Works II
Choreography — William Forsythe
Music — James Blake
Thousandth Orange
Choreography — Tiler Peck
Music — Caroline Shaw
Swift Arrow
Choreography — Alonzo King
Music — Jason Moran
Time Spell
Choreography — Tiler Peck, Michelle Dorrance & Jillian Meyers
Music — Aaron Marcellus & Penelope Wendtlandt