Tony-Winning Choreographer Peck Reflects on His Season-Closing Commission for the Ballet

Tony-Winning Choreographer Peck Reflects on His Season-Closing Commission for the Ballet

Houston Ballet Soloist Naazir Muhammad with artists of Houston Ballet rehearsing Justin Peck’s 'Under the Folding Sky' (photo by Lawrence Elizabeth Knox)

“I THINK WITH any artform, there has to be innovation and forward motion,” says Tony Award-winning choreographer Justin Peck when asked about the state of ballet. “I think it’s really important to bring in artists who are thinking not only of the forward motion of dance, but of music, visual design, light, and costume and fashion."


Peck, 35, is certainly an artist concerned with “the forward motion” of dance. His brand new work for Houston Ballet Under the Folding Sky, which premieres May 25 on the ballet’s summer program Divergence, draws equal inspiration from the James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany Skyspace at Rice University and music from act three of The Photographer, a rare gem of a score by Philip Glass originally composed in 1982 for a mixed-media performance about the life of photographer Eadweard Muybridge. It’s Peck’s second commission by Houston Ballet.

Justin Peck (photo by Ryan Pfluger)

To create the work, Peck came to rehearsals with Houston Ballet with a general structure for each of the three sections of Glass’s score. “Once I bring that to the table, it’s really a process of being in the room with the dancers, and having a back and forth exchange with them,” explains Peck. As rehearsals progress, the language of the dance evolves.

Peck has wanted to make a dance to The Photographer for nearly a decade. “It’s an amazing, danceable score but that third act — it’s a banger,” says Peck, who worked with Glass’s publishers to restore and revise the score for performance by the Houston Ballet Orchestra. “It has this building, propulsive quality, as it gains speed over 20 minutes.”

In addition to matching the build of Glass’s music, Peck wanted to evoke the incremental changes in artificial and natural light inside Turrell’s Skyspace. The dance begins accordingly with just one dancer, then two, then four and so forth, slowly building up to what Peck describes as “a massive corps de ballet” of 24 dancers. “It’s about the feeling that slow transition gives to the viewer as they’re taking in the installation,” says Peck. “I wanted to create a dance experience inspired by that very thing.”

Now married to former Miami City Ballet principal dancer Patricia Delgado, and the father of a 14-month-old daughter, Peck’s varied and extensive resume includes his current role as Resident Choreographer for the New York City Ballet, choreographing the 2018 Broadway revival of Carousel, and reimagining Jerome Robbins’s iconic Jets and Sharks dances for Steven Spielberg’s 2022 film West Side Story. Given the range of his creative work, it’s no surprise Peck feels now is an especially exciting time for ballet as an art form.

“You can track how far ballet has progressed by looking Houston Ballet and the range of commissions they’ve performed in the past year,” says Peck. “From very narrative work to my piece, which is a much more abstract work that feels almost like an art installation, it just shows such a range of what the artists are doing and what the company can support in a single season.”

Also on the program for Divergence is Aszure Barton’s Angular Momentum, which pays homage to Houston and is set to a score by Mason Bates incorporating archival NASA recordings; and Stanton Welch’s Divergence, one of the ballet’s signature works, with music by Georges Bizet.

Peck with artists of Houston Ballet (photo by Lawrence Elizabeth Knox)

Art + Entertainment
‘Culture of Service and Accountability’ Supports Mission of Orion EMS

Gerard O’Brien, President/CEO & Founder, and Sumi Patel, Vice President

HOW DID YOU get where you are today? The EMS industry, quite literally, never stops. Our staff and units are called to serve our community every hour of every day; there are no weekends, holidays, or “days off.” Obviously, the demands of EMS are not for the faint of heart, and we have established a culture of service and accountability that is different than nearly every other organization. Our leadership team sets this culture by exhibiting their passion for this industry daily. Their tireless dedication makes a better experience for our staff when they come to work and for our patients and clients when they call on us to transport their loved ones.

Keep ReadingShow less

David Adickes and Bun B

SOME OF THE CITY'S most influential VIPs gathered at Steak 48 in River Oaks District for the annual toast to CityBook’s “Leaders & Legends,” a recurring franchise for the publication whose past honorees have including a Tony and Grammy winner, a Nobel laureate, a member of Congress, an Olympic medalist, multiple billionaire business moguls, TV stars, artists and scientists of every sort, and the city’s most glamorous and generous socialites.

Keep ReadingShow less
Parties

Tay Butler’s Lawndale installation, spring 2023

DESPITE ITS PAIN and pitfalls, there’s no denying that the pandemic inspired artists like never before. This season, one of the most ambitious public-art projects to emerge from the Covid years comes to a close.

Keep ReadingShow less
Art + Entertainment