The Vail Dance Festival is known for its exceptional artistry, unique collaborations and commissioned new works. Learn more about new works created yearly in Vail as well as the first Festival event outside of our Colorado home that was held at New York’s City Center, ReMix NYC.
Since Damian Woetzel stepped into the role of Artistic Director in 2007, the Festival has made the creation of new works a priority. From 2007 to 2017, Woetzel commissioned 68 new works which carry the name of the Vail Dance Festival in perpetuity.
Launched in 2011, the NOW: Premieres program – an evening devoted to world premieres – brings new works to life, nurtures emerging talent and fosters collaboration among artists from diverse backgrounds. “It’s an evening that inspires enthusiastic anticipation and delivers rich rewards.” –The New York Times
| World Premiere | Date | Choreography By |
| 2007 | ||
| Release My Heart | 8.4.07 | Ron K. Brown |
| The Orchard | 8.4.07 | Damian Woetzel |
| (Preview) Fool’s Paradise | 8.11.07 | Christopher Wheeldon |
| Prokofiev Pas de Deux | 8.11.07 | Christopher Wheeldon |
| Vicissitudes | 8.11.07 | Edwaard Liang |
| 2008 | ||
| Song V | 7.27.08 | Bulareyaung Pagarlava |
| 2010 | ||
| Solitude In Numbers | 8.4.10 | Sang Jijia |
| Fandango | 8.6.10 | Alexei Ratmansky |
| Rock Steady | 8.6.10 | Larry Keigwin (w/Ashley Browne, Aaron Carr) |
| Romper El Piso | 8.8.10 | Natalia Hills |
| 2011 | ||
| Archetypes | 8.8.11 | Emery LeCrone |
| Shoe Wither Revival | 8.8.11 | Richard Siegal |
| The Music’s Coming Through Me | 8.8.11 | New Styles Krew |
| Gravity Heros | 8.8.11 | Trey McIntyre |
| 2012 | ||
| Switch Phase | 8.6.12 | Matthew Neenan |
| Solo for Sy | 8.6.12 | Jill Johnson |
| Fall Falls | 8.6.12 | Brian Brooks |
| Varone Variation – Lamentation Variations Project | 8.6.12 | Doug Varone |
| 3 Movements and 4 Repeats | 8.6.12 | Christopher Wheeldon |
| 2013 | ||
| Tango Trio | 8.3.13 | Analia Centruion, Herman Cornejo, Gabriel Missé, Damian Woetzel |
| Sunshine | 8.2.13 | Larry Keigwin |
| Entanglement | 8.2.13 | Brian Brooks |
| Les Hommes De La Legande | 8.2.13 | Lil Buck, Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles, Ringmaster Nugget, Keviorr Taylor |
| Canvas | 8.2.13 | Larry Keigwin |
| All Will Be Still | 8.3.13 | Fang-Yi Sheu |
| Partita | 8.3.13 | Lil Buck & Damian Woetzel |
| Anywhere On the Road | 8.5.13 | Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles & Fang-Yi Sheu |
| American Dreamer | 8.5.13 | Paul Taylor |
| 2014 | ||
| Street Scenes | 8.1.14 | Damian Woetzel & Artists |
| Unrepeatable | 8.1.14 | Fang-Yi Sheu |
| Tabla-Ture | 8.2.14 | Damian Woetzel & Lil Buck |
| Counterpoint | 8.4.14 | Brian Brooks |
| Talk to Her | 8.4.14 | Fang Yi-Sheu |
| 1X1 | 8.4.14 | Fang-Yi Sheu & Shantala Shivalingappa |
| Memphis Born | 8.4.14 | Lil Buck, Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles, Keviorr Taylor |
| Pheromones | 8.4.14 | Fang-Yi Sheu |
| Blooming | 8.4.14 | Shantala Shivalingappa & Lil Buck |
| Increasing | 8.4.14 | Matthew Neenan |
| 2015 | ||
| Dig the Say | 8.4.15 | Lil Buck, Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles, Damian Woetzel |
| Day for Night for Vail | 8.4.15 | Pam Tanowitz |
| Desire Liar | 8.4.15 | Silas Reiner & Rashaun Mitchell |
| Show Me | 8.4.15 | Matthew Neenan |
| Migration | 8.4.15 | Fang-Yi Sheu |
| Easy Win | 8.4.15 | John Heginbotham |
| L.O.V.E. | 8.7.15 | Alejandro Cerrudo |
| Time it was | 8.7.15 | Bill Irwin, Tiler Peck, Damian Woetzel |
| Y Dance | 8.7.15 | Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener |
| 2016 | ||
| Vail Dance Jam 2016 | 7.30.16 | Lil Buck, Shantala Shivalingappa, Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles, “Audacious Adi” Malcolm, Damian Woetzel |
| Universe | 8.5.16 | Gabriel Missé & Carla Espinoza |
| Lessons in Tradition | 8.5.16 | Michelle Dorrance & Bill Irwin |
| Milongon | 8.6.16 | Herman Cornejo |
| Zapateado | 8.6.16 | Valeriano Paños & Rafael Estévez |
| 1.2.3.4.5.6 | 8.6.16 | Developed by Damian Woetzel & Michelle Dorrance |
| Romance Study #4 | 8.8.16 | Silas Riener + Rashaun Mitchell |
| Liquid Velvet | 8.8.16 | Jodie Gates |
| Jodi Kate ravel | 8.8.16 | Jodi Melnick |
| Solitaire | 8.8.16 | Claudia Schreier |
| Blooming II | 8.8.16 | Lil Buck & Shantala Shivalingappa |
| Credo | 8.8.16 | Matthew Neenan |
| Post Performance | 8.13.16 | James Whiteside |
| Wait | 8.13.16 | Lil Buck & Ron “Prime Tyme” Myles |
| 2017 | ||
| Farewell | 8.5.17 | Matthew Neenan |
| Tranquil Night, Bright and Infinite | 8.7.17 | Claudia Schreier |
| Solo for Patricia | 8.7.17 | Pam Tanowitz |
| Entr’acte | 8.7.17 | Pam Tanowitz |
| Angles of the Get-Through | 8.7.17 | Lauren Lovette |
| we seem to be more than one | 8.7.17 | Michelle Dorrance, Dario Natarelli & Dancers |
| Lamentation Variation | 8.7.17 | Lil Buck |
November 2016
In Damian Woetzel’s tenth year as Artistic Director of the Vail Dance Festival, City Center presented three programs and an UpClose performance channeling the spirit of our acclaimed summer dance event in the Rocky Mountains. Read the review here.
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
Program Information:
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.