New Jersey Ballet Presents: A Night On the Town at NBPAC

New Jersey Ballet presents A Night On the Town, featuring Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, which was the inspiration for the full-length musical On the Town. Fancy Free was Robbins’ first collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein. Choreographed in 1944, Robbins and Bernstein aspired to bring a modern American sensibility to ballet with the concept of sailors on shore leave in New York City.

The program will also feature George Balanchine’s Rubies. Set to Igor Stravinsky’s Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, Rubies sends dancers racing across the stage to reflect Stravinsky’s jazz-inflected piano with movements that incorporate sassy style and sharp attack. Rubies premiered at New York City Ballet in 1967, where New Jersey Ballet’s long-time Artistic Advisor, Edward Villella was part of the original cast.

New Jersey Ballet is thrilled to have New York City Ballet principal dancer, Daniel Ulbricht,  dazzle us with his sparkling technique in George Balachine\’s Rubies.

Also on the program is Christopher Wheeldon\’s poetic and breathtaking pas de deux, This Bitter Earth and Reencounter, a work by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano set to the music of George Bizet\’s Carmen.