New York City Ballet’s spring gala will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its Lincoln Center home — featuring works that were performed at the theater’s inaugural performance in 1964 and an onstage tribute to some of the ballet stars who performed that season.
The first half of the gala, which will be held May 8, will include works that were featured on April 23, 1964, at the first performance at what was then called the New York State Theater, and which has since been renamed for David H. Koch, including George Balanchine’s “Allegro Brillante” and Stravinsky’s “Fanfare for a New Theater,” which was written for the occasion.
An onstage tribute to City Ballet dancers who performed in the 1964 season is expected to feature several who performed at the theater’s opening, including Jacques d’Amboise, Suki Schorer, Kay Mazzo, Karin von Aroldingen and Sara Leland.
There will also be a nod to one of the theater’s other original tenants: the short-lived Music Theater of Lincoln Center, which was led by Richard Rodgers and lasted through 1969. The gala will feature excerpts from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel,” parts of which were performed at the theater’s 1964 opening; this time they will be performed by Kristen Bell, well-known to the elementary school set these days as the voice of Anna in Disney’s “Frozen.”
It will not all be nostalgia, though: the second half of the gala will include the world premiere of a new ballet by Justin Peck, the choreographer and City Ballet dancer, set to a new score by Sufjan Stevens, the singer-songwriter. The two collaborated on “Year of the Rabbit” in 2012.