New Jersey Ballet presents A Night on the Town

A Night On the Town will feature 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.

Additional repertory to be announced soon.

New Jersey Ballet is the resident ballet company at MPAC.

For more than half a century, New Jersey Ballet has thrilled audiences from Bergen to Cape May with top quality professional ballet and has given hundreds of thousands of adults and children their first introduction to ballet and inspired in many a lifelong love of the arts.

The founding of New Jersey Ballet created a profound change in the cultural landscape of New Jersey. Over the years, New Jersey Ballet has brought the magic of dance theatre to countless students, little children, senior citizens and adults of all ages. During its 26 week season, New Jersey Ballet performs a variety of works from classical, contemporary and jazz ballet at 10 venues throughout the state, and has toured nationally and around the world.

The repertory includes works choreographed by some of the greatest names in the world of dance: Balanchine, deMille, Tudor, Nebrada, North, Pourfarrokh, Taras, Sappington, Renvall, Tomal, Vernon, Vesak, Petipa, Chabukiany, Saint Leon and Bournonville. The company’s artistic advisors include 3 of the greatest international dancers of the 20th century; Edward Villella, Eleanor D’Antuono and Leonid Kozlov, who coach the dancers in repertory they themselves danced at New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi.

New Jersey Ballet is proud to be designated a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In 2009 and 2010, the company was voted New Jersey’s Favorite Dance Company in an online poll sponsored by Jersey Arts Marketers.

“New Jersey Ballet Company is the ONLY dance organization in the New York metropolitan area that takes high quality programming and performances to urban, rural and suburban communities throughout New Jersey (and at a cost that is “affordable” in comparison with the major organizations in New York City who are at home at Lincoln Center). Residents of our state have access to a three hundred year-old dance tradition, frequently on their doorsteps. New Jersey Ballet is an assemblage of professional dancers who embody the highest standards of technique and artistry and they are OURS!!!”

Minimum Age Requirements

All patrons, including small children, must have a ticket to enter the theater. All performances are appropriate for ages 5+ as long as guests are not disruptive to other patrons’ enjoyment of the performance. MPAC’s ushers will ask anyone causing a disturbance during a performance to leave the auditorium and view the performance on the screen in the lobby regardless of age.