EXCLUSIVE: Solange Knowles scored a ballet with costumes set with 800,000 Swarovski crystals
The dance world continues its comeback and the New York City Ballet has planned a program this Wednesday oriented towards a new generation of viewers.
Members of the public who will see the curtain part at the 10th Annual Fall Fashion Gala from the company this week will take on three new works with costumes from world-renowned fashion designers. The star power behind a particular ballet has been touted as one of New York's must-see cultural moments this fall, and several performances scheduled throughout the season have already sold out.
'Play Time', with choreography by rising talent Gianna Reisen, costumes by Alejandro Gómez Palomo by Palomo Spain, and an original score by Solange Knowles—her first for a ballet company—will feature a cast of 10 dancers dressed head to toe in pinstripes made from over 800,000 Swarovski crystals.
> Related Galleries"Alejandro came to me with these amazing ideas and Solange had this really powerful and crazy music and I I said, "OK, it's my job to integrate everything and create something cohesive", so in that sense, it's a lot of pressure. They did what they had to do, so it's it's up to me to create something that makes sense," Reisen said on a recent afternoon at City Ballet's costume shop while trying on Palomo's designs. Alumnus of the City-affiliated School of American Ballet Ballet, Reisen, 23, danced professionally with Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project and a national company in Dresden, Germany, but recently retired from dance to focus on her choreography.
Despite her young age, she is a Fashion Gala veteran; Reisen created his first piece for the company in 2017 when he was 18, with costumes by Virgil Abloh. In 2018, she resumed her participation with a new work dressed by Alberta Ferretti.
Despite mixed critical response to the 31 new fashion gala ballets produced over the past decade , Reisen's two releases so far have been considerably well received.
She returns to the company for the first time after the pandemic with newfound confidence. “I'm starting to develop my own vocabulary, my own movement. I'm starting to feel more comfortable ordering. It's not easier, but [I] feel like I have more experience and I have more to say now,” she said.
Reisen's latest effort aims to bring a new brand of modernity to ballet - which is often stuck in rarefactions, old world codes - and Knowles' music aims to be a big part of that equation.
Knowles' 16-minute score, when heard piecemeal by WWD, is widely rooted in cool, experimental jazz music with rhythm and interludes reminiscent of classical ballet. Its rich, layered notes complement Reisen's bubbly moves, which tend to burst on stage and maintain an untold level of energy that plays at the speed of his classic Balanchine formation.
"[Solange and I] talked about our love for jazz," Reisen said during his first encounters with Knowles. “She decided to take a jazzy element and twist it and do something new that no one has ever heard. I feel like there's nothing like before, it's really unique."
The dance world continues its comeback and the New York City Ballet has planned a program this Wednesday oriented towards a new generation of viewers.
Members of the public who will see the curtain part at the 10th Annual Fall Fashion Gala from the company this week will take on three new works with costumes from world-renowned fashion designers. The star power behind a particular ballet has been touted as one of New York's must-see cultural moments this fall, and several performances scheduled throughout the season have already sold out.
'Play Time', with choreography by rising talent Gianna Reisen, costumes by Alejandro Gómez Palomo by Palomo Spain, and an original score by Solange Knowles—her first for a ballet company—will feature a cast of 10 dancers dressed head to toe in pinstripes made from over 800,000 Swarovski crystals.
> Related Galleries"Alejandro came to me with these amazing ideas and Solange had this really powerful and crazy music and I I said, "OK, it's my job to integrate everything and create something cohesive", so in that sense, it's a lot of pressure. They did what they had to do, so it's it's up to me to create something that makes sense," Reisen said on a recent afternoon at City Ballet's costume shop while trying on Palomo's designs. Alumnus of the City-affiliated School of American Ballet Ballet, Reisen, 23, danced professionally with Benjamin Millepied's L.A. Dance Project and a national company in Dresden, Germany, but recently retired from dance to focus on her choreography.
Despite her young age, she is a Fashion Gala veteran; Reisen created his first piece for the company in 2017 when he was 18, with costumes by Virgil Abloh. In 2018, she resumed her participation with a new work dressed by Alberta Ferretti.
Despite mixed critical response to the 31 new fashion gala ballets produced over the past decade , Reisen's two releases so far have been considerably well received.
She returns to the company for the first time after the pandemic with newfound confidence. “I'm starting to develop my own vocabulary, my own movement. I'm starting to feel more comfortable ordering. It's not easier, but [I] feel like I have more experience and I have more to say now,” she said.
Reisen's latest effort aims to bring a new brand of modernity to ballet - which is often stuck in rarefactions, old world codes - and Knowles' music aims to be a big part of that equation.
Knowles' 16-minute score, when heard piecemeal by WWD, is widely rooted in cool, experimental jazz music with rhythm and interludes reminiscent of classical ballet. Its rich, layered notes complement Reisen's bubbly moves, which tend to burst on stage and maintain an untold level of energy that plays at the speed of his classic Balanchine formation.
"[Solange and I] talked about our love for jazz," Reisen said during his first encounters with Knowles. “She decided to take a jazzy element and twist it and do something new that no one has ever heard. I feel like there's nothing like before, it's really unique."
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