World Premieres

This year the Vail Dance Festival is proud to celebrate its 100th world-premiere dance commission under Damian Woetzel’s visionary leadership since being named Artistic Director in 2006. From the start of his tenure, Mr. Woetzel prioritized developing new works that foster unique collaborations between artists of various dance genres to push the boundaries of the artform, further cementing Vail as a leading voice for new choreography in the United States. At 10,000ft above sea level, nestled in the heart of the Colorado Rockies, Vail has earned a reputation where “high-profile dancers make their annual trek to the mountains for this collaboration-rich festival” (Dance Magazine)

Beginning with choreographer Christopher Wheeldon as he launched his company Morphoses at the 2007 Festival, dancemakers of various genres have since partnered with Mr. Woetzel in the lab environment that is a signature of the Vail Dance Festival. Creative voices over the years have included Paul Taylor, Michelle Dorrance, Brian Brooks, Pam Tanowitz, Alonzo King, Shantala Shivalingappa, Larry Keigwin, Alexei Ratmansky, Claudia Schreier, Fang-Yi Sheu, Lil Buck, Matthew Neenan, Jodi Melnick, John Heginbotham, Lauren Lovette, Tiler Peck, Jamar Roberts, and Justin Peck. Essential to the collaborative work have been the musical collaborators who have been a part of the Festival, including Philip Glass, Caroline Shaw, Jason Moran, Rhiannon Giddens, Vijay Iyer, Gabriela Lena Frank, and the musicians of Brooklyn Rider among many others. 

“Showing the diversity of dance styles and techniques and juxtaposing dancers from different genres — from ballet to jookin’ to contemporary and Indian dance — has been part of Damian Woetzel’s mission since he became director of the festival.” -The New York Times

Now, fifteen years on, many of the works that have made their world premieres in Vail have been presented in other prestigious venues around the globe including New York City Center, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Joyce Theater, and at companies including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Pam Tanowitz Dance, Dance Heginbotham, Pacific Northwest Ballet, among many others. 

Join us this summer at the 2022 Vail Dance Festival as we celebrate Damian Woetzel’s remarkable milestone of creativity, innovation, and collaboration in Vail.  

93 WORLD PREMIERES SINCE 2007

2021

VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL NEW WORKS LIVE ON AT THE 2016 VAIL DANCE FESTIVAL: REMIX NYC

In Damian Woetzel’s tenth year as Artistic Director of the Vail Dance Festival, New York’s City Center presented three programs and an UpClose performance channeling the spirit of our acclaimed summer dance event in the Rocky Mountains. The event included Sara Mearns performing Ratmansky’s Fandago, hailed by The New York Times as the dance of 2016: “And in November, the illustrious Sara Mearns danced the New York premiere of Mr. Ratmansky’s ballerina solo “Fandango” (created for Wendy Whelan in 2010 at the Vail International Dance Festival, to Boccherini music). Ms. Mearns blazed; her musicality electrified. If I had to choose one 2016 performance by one dancer, this would be the one.” — Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times. Read the review here. 

Thursday | Nov. 3, 2016 | 8pm

Apollo
(Stravinsky/Balanchine)
Herman Cornejo, Tiler Peck, Isabella Boylston, and Misa Kuranaga

1·2·3·4·5·6
(Dorrance/Toogood/Lil Buck/Fairchild)
Michelle Dorrance, Melissa Toogood, Lil Buck, and Robert Fairchild

Fandango
(Boccherini/Ratmansky)
Sara Mearns

This Bitter Earth
(Otis/Richter/Wheeldon)
Isabella Boylston and Calvin Royal III, with Kate Davis (vocals)

Élégie
(Stravinsky/Balanchine)
Carla Körbes

Divertimento Brillante
(Glinka/Balanchine)
Tiler Peck and Joseph Gordon

Lil Buck @ City Center: A Jookin’ Jam Session
(various composers/Lil Buck and others)
Lil Buck, Yo-Yo Ma, and other artists

Friday | Nov. 4, 2016 | 8pm

Apollo
(Stravinsky/Balanchine)
Robert Fairchild, Tiler Peck, Isabella Boylston, and Devon Teuscher

Leaves are Fading
(Dvorak/Tudor)
Tiler Peck and Cory Stearns

Lamentation
(Kodaly/Graham)
Carla Körbes

Fandango
(Boccherini/Ratmansky)
Sara Mearns

Lil Buck @ City Center: A Jookin’ Jam Session
(various composers/Lil Buck and others)
Lil Buck and other artists

Saturday | Nov. 5, 2016 | 8pm

Canvas
(Crystal/Keigwin)
Keigwin + Company

Ife / My Heart  
(Rucker/R. Brown)
Matthew Rushing

Anywhere on This Road
(Lhasa/Sheu)
Fang-Yi Sheu and Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles

Suite from Mazurkas
(Chopin/Limon)
Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild

First Fall
(Glass/Brooks)
Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks

Liquid Velvet
(Dallapiccola/Gates)
Carla Körbes and Jared Angle

This Bitter Earth
(Otis/Richter/Wheeldon)
Isabella Boylston and Calvin Royal III, with Kate Davis (vocals)

Tabla-ture   
(Das/Lil Buck/Woetzel)
Lil Buck and Sandeep Das

Divertissement Pas de Deux from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(Mendelssohn/Balanchine)
Tiler Peck and Jared Angle

Switch Phase
(Zhurbin/Neenan)
BalletX

Sunday | Nov. 6, 2016 | 3pm

UpClose: Footwork
In this performance event, Damian Woetzel coaches dancers and deconstruct their work onstage in front of the audience while providing musical and choreographic context. Joining Woetzel to illustrate the sophistication of footwork in a wide variety of genres are Lil Buck, Carla Espinoza, Robert Fairchild, Carla Körbes, Gabriel Missé, Tiler Peck, Matthew Rushing,Fang-Yi Sheu, and others.