George Balanchine was barely 30 years old, and a new immigrant to America, when he premiered the piece that would become the signature work of New York City Ballet (here danced beautifully by Pacific Northwest Ballet). Serenade broke new ground in many ways, especially in its highlighting of the corps de ballet women, and in its balance of the formal and classical against the improvisational and emotional. NYCB’s latest choreographic sensation, nurtured by Balanchine’s successor, Peter Martins, is even younger than Balanchine was when the intricacies of Serenade sprung from his brain. 25-year-old Justin Peck has entranced New York audiences and critics with his sophisticated, idea-packed Year of the Rabbit, set to an ambitious re-orchestration of an electronic score by Sufjan Stevens for strings. Brian Seibert for The New York Times proclaims: “The rabbit of Mr. Peck’s imagination is off at a run. Chasing after it will be a pleasure.” The inimitable Tobi Tobias agrees that “[t]hroughout the ballet, Peck’s authority is evident” and delightfully opines:
The qualities of romance and its best friends, melancholy and yearning, make their appearance in several passages that are not as original or imaginative as the presto sections. They are workmanlike to be sure, occasionally touching, but I hope, one of these days, to applaud the moment in which Peck invites legato out on a date.
