Works

Landmark Works, Examined

Deep dives into individual contemporary ballet works - their origins, what makes them distinct, and how they've shaped the repertory since.

A dancer whirling in blurred, streaking motion, illustrative of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Christopher Wheeldon, 2011 - Wonderland reimagined as a three-act spectacle

Christopher Wheeldon's three-act spectacle turns Lewis Carroll's Wonderland into one of the most widely restaged full-length ballets of its era.

Read the Profile
A large ensemble of dancers under harsh stage light, illustrative of Artifact

Artifact

William Forsythe, 1984 - ballet that interrupts itself

William Forsythe's first major work as director of Ballett Frankfurt interrupts its own choreography with spoken text, sudden blackouts, and a curtain that crashes down mid-phrase.

Read the Profile
An ensemble of dancers in grounded, weighted formation, illustrative of Awáa

Awáa

Aszure Barton, 2012 - the body as origin and vessel

An ensemble work built around the many cross-cultural words for 'mother,' exploring motherhood and womanhood through visceral, weighted movement and live voice.

Read the Profile
Dancers in dramatic dark lighting, illustrative of Betroffenheit

Betroffenheit

Crystal Pite & Jonathon Young, 2015 - grief staged as a haunted vaudeville

A dance-theatre work built from actor Jonathon Young's own experience of loss, co-created with choreographer Crystal Pite.

Read the Profile
A dancer on pointe in a clean, melodic line, illustrative of Blake Works I

Blake Works I

William Forsythe, 2016 - deconstruction, resolved into song

William Forsythe returns to melodic, pointe-driven ballet vocabulary, setting songs by musician James Blake for the Paris Opera Ballet.

Read the Profile
An ensemble of dancers frozen in angular, reaching poses under low red stage light, illustrative of Cacti's tightly synchronized group choreography

Cacti

Alexander Ekman, 2010 - a satire of contemporary dance and the critics who explain it

Sixteen dancers, giant floor tiles, potted cacti, and a live string quartet that speaks in the overblown language of dance criticism - Ekman's best-known satirical work.

Read the Profile
Dancers moving with eyes closed among scattered chairs, illustrative of Café Müller

Café Müller

Pina Bausch, 1978 - a stage of chairs, eyes closed against memory

Pina Bausch's own semi-autobiographical piece, danced with eyes closed through a stage cluttered with chairs, later made famous worldwide by a film excerpt.

Read the Profile
A dancer in a hyperextended pose inside a stark white box set, illustrative of Chroma

Chroma

Wayne McGregor, 2006 - ten dancers inside a stark white box

Wayne McGregor's 2006 breakthrough for The Royal Ballet, staged in a stark white box designed by architect John Pawson, won the Olivier Award and reshaped what the company's dancers could do.

Read the Profile
A lone dancer crouched under a shaft of light on a bare stage, illustrative of DESH

DESH

Akram Khan, 2011 - one dancer, an inherited homeland

Akram Khan's Olivier Award-winning solo mixes spoken storytelling, animation, and punishing solo dance to trace his relationship to his father and to Bangladesh.

Read the Profile
A dancer in a tutu and striped top posed starkly in an urban plaza, illustrative of Mats Ek's reimagining of Giselle

Giselle

Mats Ek, 1982 - the Romantic classic rebuilt as barefoot psychiatric drama, to Adam's original score

Mats Ek's 1982 Giselle keeps Adolphe Adam's score but rebuilds the story around a village outsider whose breakdown lands her in an asylum - one of the most influential ballet reinterpretations of the 20th century.

Read the Profile
Dancers in flowing red costumes caught in sharp, backlit poses against total darkness, illustrative of Grand Finale

Grand Finale

Hofesh Shechter, 2017 - a wild waltz staged among sliding black monoliths

A meditation on conflict and mortality staged among sliding black monoliths, blending Shechter's own score with recomposed classical fragments.

Read the Profile
A dancer in an extreme flying leap, illustrative of In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated

In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated

William Forsythe, 1987 - ballet vocabulary pushed to its outer edge

Forsythe's 1987 work for the Paris Opera Ballet became the most widely performed piece of contemporary ballet repertory in the world.

Read the Profile
Dancers in striped costumes caught mid-motion in swirling stage fog, illustrative of In the Upper Room

In the Upper Room

Twyla Tharp, 1986 - stompers and bombers colliding in fog and stripes

Twyla Tharp's most performed work sets sneaker-clad 'stompers' against pointe-shoe 'bombers' in drifting fog, a commissioned Philip Glass score, and Norma Kamali's black-and-white stripes.

Read the Profile
A dancer arched backward over weathered stone, illustrative of Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

Cathy Marston, 2016 - a novel's interior life given danced form

Cathy Marston's adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's novel for Northern Ballet, staging Jane's inner turmoil through a device of shadow men who trip, obstruct, and carry her.

Read the Profile
A dancer in a dark suit mid-fall from a plain chair, illustrative of Minus 16

Minus 16

Ohad Naharin, 1999 - a collage of repertory built to end with the audience onstage

Ohad Naharin's collage of his own repertory, built around a chair-bound unison sequence and famous for pulling audience members onstage at its close.

Read the Profile
Dancers in loose, grounded postures on a bare stage, illustrative of Pavement

Pavement

Kyle Abraham, 2012 - a neighborhood remembered in movement

Kyle Abraham weaves John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood and W.E.B. Du Bois's sociology of Black Philadelphia into a meditation on his own Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Read the Profile
A dancer partnered in a low, extended reach, illustrative of Petite Mort

Petite Mort

Jiří Kylián, 1991 - fencing foils, Mozart, and the choreography of desire

Kylián's 1991 Mozart bicentennial commission, built around fencing foils and rococo dresses, became NDT's most widely licensed work.

Read the Profile
An ensemble of dancers in crisp, musically phrased formation, illustrative of Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition

Alexei Ratmansky, 2014 - a gallery walk translated into steps

Alexei Ratmansky's abstract, wittily musical response to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, made for New York City Ballet.

Read the Profile
Dancers moving under harsh stage lighting with a raised band platform behind them, illustrative of Political Mother

Political Mother

Hofesh Shechter, 2010 - history's violence played at full volume

A large-scale, deafeningly loud work for a stage packed with dancers, electric guitarists, and drummers, staring directly at authoritarianism and political violence.

Read the Profile
Dancers moving before a tall white wall on a bare stage, illustrative of Sadeh21

Sadeh21

Ohad Naharin, 2011 - twenty-one fields, one continuous body

Ohad Naharin builds Batsheva Dance Company's Sadeh21 from 21 sequential 'fields,' performed on a bare stage dominated by a tall white wall dancers fall from and into.

Read the Profile
A dancer partnered closely with another representing an instrument, illustrative of The Cellist

The Cellist

Cathy Marston, 2020 - a life, and an instrument, danced as one

Cathy Marston's narrative ballet on cellist Jacqueline du Pré, danced with a partner embodying her cello as a living, physical presence.

Read the Profile
Dancers in sneakers moving in a bright, energetic group formation, illustrative of The Times Are Racing

The Times Are Racing

Justin Peck, 2017 - ballet unlaced from pointe shoes

Justin Peck's high-energy ensemble piece, danced largely in sneakers rather than pointe shoes, became known for its socially engaged tone and a landmark same-sex principal pairing.

Read the Profile
Two dancers in an intimate, close embrace, illustrative of This Bitter Earth

This Bitter Earth

Christopher Wheeldon, 2012 - a duet built for one dancer's second act

A duet made for New York City Ballet's Wendy Whelan, set to Max Richter's mashup of his own score with Dinah Washington's voice, that became a defining contemporary pas de deux of its decade.

Read the Profile
A dancer in a pale lilac tutu tying pointe shoe ribbons at the barre, illustrative of Whipped Cream

Whipped Cream

Alexei Ratmansky, 2017 - a candy-colored fever dream for American Ballet Theatre

A fantastical, candy-colored full-length ballet for American Ballet Theatre, built from Richard Strauss's score and artist Mark Ryden's surreal designs.

Read the Profile
A dancer in fluid, contemporary lines against abstract light, illustrative of Woolf Works

Woolf Works

Wayne McGregor, 2015 - three novels, one dancer's return to the stage

Wayne McGregor's three-act meditation on Virginia Woolf's novels and life, made with Alessandra Ferri's return to The Royal Ballet.

Read the Profile
A solo dancer in a dust-lit, war-torn setting, illustrative of Xenos

Xenos

Akram Khan, 2018 - a soldier's memory, danced as farewell

Announced as Akram Khan's final full-length solo as a dancer, Xenos follows a colonial Indian soldier's unraveling memory in the trenches of WWI.

Read the Profile
Two dancers in close, mirrored contact on a bare stage, illustrative of zero degrees

zero degrees

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui & Akram Khan, 2005 - two bodies, one border

A duet co-choreographed and danced by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Akram Khan themselves, built around a life-cast figure standing in for a dead body.

Read the Profile