The Times Are Racing

“The Times Are Racing is not a polemic. It is arresting and complex, its moods encompassing anger and mischief, despair, resistance, antic goofiness, and ecstatic union. But it suggests the ways in which ballet can be agitated and agitating, a space to process contemporary life, and maybe experience catharsis. If ballet has traditionally been a world apart — a place where bodies are idealized, performing impossible feats with what looks like uncanny ease — Peck invites the audience to identify with the dancers and suffuses his architectural creations with hints of recognizable intimacy.” –The New York Times

One of the most buzzed about premieres of 2017, The Times Are Racing is a sneaker ballet that sees its dancers in streetwear designed by Opening Ceremony, drawing inspiration from a variety of dance styles while matching Dan Deacon’s electronic score with youthful impulse and vigor.

Justin Peck’s The Times Are Racing is set to the last four tracks of Dan Deacon’s expansive 2012 album, America. The ballet for 20 dancers is Peck’s second collaboration with fashion designer Humberto Leon of Opening Ceremony, following New Blood, which premiered at NYCB’s 2015 Fall Gala. The lighting is by Peck’s frequent collaborator Brandon Stirling Baker.

Program note courtesy of New York City Ballet.