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" I like graceful and elegant partnering that gives an illusion of ease instead of emphasizing difficulty. I don't want to make something 'contemporary' or 'trendy,' because ballet doesn't progress on one track: it can branch out in many directions, and as Balanchine showed, there's always room for pure classicism and more subtle alterations of it. "

Justin Peck

Pure

Progress

" I'm not a very good dancer. My feet don't point far enough; my extension is embarrassing. Dance, for me, has been hard because it's a strive for perfection. "

Justin Peck

Good

Dance

" Pressure feels sort of normal to me. "

Justin Peck

Normal

Sort

" There needs to be more encouragement and support for women - at an impressionable age - to explore that choreographic side of their brains. "

" There's an innate feeling when I choreograph in juxtaposition to how I feel as a dancer. When I choreograph, I never really look into the mirror. But as dancers, we always check ourselves in the mirror. I do feel that when I choreograph, I am making a dance on my own body. Much of it is my own response to the music. "

" If I get a commission, it's like a flood of creative thought and energy. "

Justin Peck

Flood

Thought

" It's probably what I'm most interested in as a choreographer: how I can alter and shift and develop the structure of a piece and of the space. "

" Balanchine is the number one influence for me. His work was really musically driven. He and Jerome Robbins were the ones who really showed me that dance could be about the inner relation between movement and music. When I was a student first seeing their work, I was like, 'Oh, this is a thing?' "

Justin Peck

Dance

Influence

" I love seeing New York City Ballet from the fourth ring, just seeing the architecture of how these bodies move from above. "

" To me, dance and ballet are not so accessible. "

Justin Peck

Ballet

Accessible

" I grew up going on vacations with my family to New York every summer, and it's something that I always looked forward to. They'd take me to theater and shows and interesting restaurants, so I was genuinely really excited to move there. "

Justin Peck

New York

Family

" When I'm in sneakers, it changes my body carriage. I feel more in my own skin. "

" Ballet dancers are among the greatest living athletes. "

" My movement is usually about finding the balance between artistry, athleticism, and musicality. It always originates with a classical basis and expands outwards from that platform. "

" I'm always interested in linking dance to mundane behavior that everyone can relate to. "

" I've always liked vintage posters of California beaches. "

" The ballet world, it's a crazy world. "

" The reason I started dancing in the first place was my dad took me to see 'Bring In 'da Noise, Bring In 'da Funk' when I was 9. "

" It's amazing what a resource modern technology is now for making ballets, and I film my rehearsals almost every day. "

" What's always interested me the most about ballet is it's this great opportunity for many different artistic mediums to come together to create a cohesive experience. "

" I've always thought of the process of creating ballets as being this kind of team effort. It's not like being a painter, where you have your paint, and you have canvas, and you just go at it. I'm working with these living, breathing, functioning human beings, and they have their own thoughts and ideas about what works well movement-wise. "

" When I saw 'Hamilton,' there was so much information so fast, I had to keep up with it. I find that quality in art exhilarating. "

" My philosophy on choreography is that the making of a ballet is a team effort, and we're in this together. It's not me hammering on them. It's more about how we can elevate this piece collectively to something great. "

Justin Peck

Together

Team

" It's time for there to be roles in the ballet where two men can fall in love, and a woman can lead a company of 20 dancers that include both men and women. "

" The idea of having a narrative guiding the viewer through and grasping their attention is a really compelling thing. "

" I'm really interested in working with groups. It's a very simple thing for me, and if I'm given the option to work with two people or 10 or 20 people, I'm going to take 10 or 20. I just think there's so much more I can do with that. "

Justin Peck

I Can

Work

" It's nice to have the support and infrastructure to do what I want creatively. That's kind of a rare thing to find. "

" There is something about Dior that reminds me of New York City Ballet. They both have a classic, glamorous basis but are trying to evolve the arts in new and innovative ways. "

" It's very difficult to switch back and forth between running rehearsals and then stepping in to dance in rehearsals as a dancer. Just to switch hats in an instant can be a little bit jarring, mostly physically, on the body. "

" American ballet... is ultimately an evolutionary art form, requiring many voices to creatively carry forward. "