For much of the nation’s 250-year history, America borrowed its ballet from Europe. Then a handful of choreographers reimagined the art form with an American identity.
Pacific Beach-based City Ballet of San Diego will close its yearlong salute to the country’s 250th birthday with works from three master choreographers who helped shape ballet in the United States.
“American Icons,” including works by George Balanchine, Peter Martins and Gerald Arpino, plays at the Balboa Theatre Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s a spectacular program in every sense of the word,” Artistic Director Steven Wistrich said.
Billed as “Three Visions — Imagination Unbound,” the program pairs two returning favorites with a company premiere.
Balanchine’s “Concerto Barocco,” a 1941 neoclassical masterwork set to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, returns to City Ballet’s stage for the first time since March 2016. The San Diego troupe is best known for performing Balanchine’s works, which the George Balanchine Trust licenses only to companies it deems artistically competent to dance them.
Martins, who succeeded Balanchine at the helm of New York City Ballet, created “Ash” in 1991 to music by Michael Torke. Blending athletic movement, lyrical expression and theatrical imagery, the contemporary ballet explores resilience and transformation. City Ballet last performed the work in November 2022.
The company premiere is Arpino’s “Light Rain,” created for the Joffrey Ballet in 1981. Set to a score by Douglas Adamz and Russ Gauthier that evokes Mediterranean rhythms, the work fuses classical technique with contemporary dance.
“Each ballet is like a shiny jewel,” Wistrich said.
The program reflects Wistrich’s admiration for the choreographers, whose work he sees as central to the evolution of American ballet. A former Boston Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet dancer, he founded City Ballet in 1993 with his wife, Elizabeth.
“George Balanchine, Gerald Arpino and Peter Martins are world renowned ballet innovators and each has elevated this magnificent art form to new heights with imagination, vision and creativity,” he said.
Although Balanchine and Martins were born outside the United States, both helped define the distinctly American style of ballet, while Arpino expanded its expressive range by blending classical technique with modern dance.
Wistrich encouraged newcomers not to shy away from a ballet just because it lacks a title as familiar as “Sleeping Beauty.”
“These innovative programs push the art form into the future with variety, creativity, great choreography, dancing, lighting, costumes, music and wonder,” he said.
Wistrich considers the program a way to bring world-class work home.
“San Diegans deserve to see the best the world of ballet has to offer and this program delivers on that promise,” he said.
City Ballet of San Diego, “American Icons” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave. Wistrich gives a free pre-performance lecture 45 minutes before each show.
