Michele Wiles and Jens Weber will perform in an updated version of Brian Reeder’s PICNIC as part of BalletNext season at NYLA this week (photo by Nisian Hughes)
SURMISABLE UNITS / DIFFERENT HOMES / PICNIC
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
January 14-18, $15-$30
212-691-6500
www.newyorklivearts.org
www.balletnext.com
Founded in 2011 by longtime ABT dancer Michele Wiles, BalletNext is a platform for the Baltimore-born Wiles to collaborate with a wide range of dancers, choreographers, and musicians, encouraging risk-taking as the company explores the future of classical ballet. From January 14 to 18, BalletNext will be at New York Live Arts, presenting three works choreographed by former NYCB and ABT dancer Brian Reeder. The world premiere of Surmisable Units, set to Steve Reich’s “Piano Phase,” opens with a solo by Wiles, who is then joined by the rest of the company. In the New York premiere of Different Homes, Wiles and former Ballet Nacional de Monte Carlo principal Jens Weber perform a pas de deux to music by Benjamin Britten, their hands never touching. The program also includes an updated version of the 2012 work Picnic, based on Peter Weir’s 1975 film, Picnic at Hanging Rock, about young girls who go missing during a school outing in Australia; the piece features Edwardian costumes and music by Dmitri Shostakovich. The music to all three works will be performed live by the BalletNext Ensemble, led by Israeli cellist Elad Kabilio and featuring Juilliard pianist Ben Laude; the well-pedigreed company consists of Wiles, Weber, former NYCB dancer Kaitlyn Gilliland, NYBT principal Steven Melendez, former Morphoses dancer Sarah Atkins, BalletNext dancer Tiffany Mangulabnan, and Manhattan Youth Ballet alumna Brittany Cioce, now a BalletNext apprentice.