Ballet and Street Dance, Brought to You by BalletNext

From February 10–14, former American Ballet Theatre principal—and current BalletNext artistic director and founder—Michele Wiles will share the stage with Jay Donn, a street dance star specializing in the style of Flex and its sub-style, Punchlines. Their collaboration has resulted in Something Sampled, and is one of three pieces to be performed at BalletNext’s spring season, Baroque’d, at New York Live Arts.

Both Flex and ballet utilize pantomime to communicate some of dance’s narrative elements. The two styles meet over that shared storytelling motif, but the dance will expand to encompass stylistic differences, as well. Five BalletNext dancers will join Wiles and Donn onstage. The two also collaborated with electro-acoustic cellist composer Chris Lancaster, to create a score for the piece. 

The program will also include Wiles’ official choreographic debut, Ushuaia, and the premiere of Peter Quanz’s Outswirl.