New Jersey Ballet: Repertory Evening

Visit the ballet performance calendar to view dates of all showings of this program.

PURCELL SUITE
Choreographer: Harrison Ball
MURDER BALLADES
Choreographer: Justin Peck
JEWEL BOX
Choreographer: Lauren Lovette

◆ New Jersey Ballet

Highlighting New Jersey Ballet’s return to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center this spring is a world premiere work by Lauren Lovette, current Resident Choreographer for Paul Taylor Dance Company.

Set to Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award- winning composer Kevin Puts’ Concerto for Orchestra, Jewel Box is inspired by the movements which reside within an old jewelry box. The centerpiece of the work is a soloist, tutu-clad ballerina who represents the elegance of the antiquity who, in visual and kinesthetic contrast, is surrounded by a group representing the actual mechanism which supports her.

“I am so excited to be working with New Jersey Ballet”, expresses Lovette. “The dancers are next level extraordinary and I am inspired every time I step in the studio. The dream is to have music that is new that goes along with the movement and I feel blessed that Kevin Puts brought this music to me.”

The evening opens with Harrison Ball‘s Purcell Suite, a NJB commissioned ballet that premiered in November 2022. Set to Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the 12-member female cast dons silky black dresses designed by Zac Posen.

The program is rounded out by Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor of New York City Ballet Justin Peck’s 2013 Murder Ballades, set to Bryce Dessner’s composition of the same name and featuring a sextet dancing in what has become signature sneakers.

Featured photo for New Jersey Ballet’s Spring Repertory evening of company dancers in Harrison Ballet’s Purcell Suite. Photo from NJB website.