The Times Are Racing

Music

Dan Deacon
(“USA I–IV” from the album America, 2012)

Choreography

Justin Peck

Staging

Craig Hall (2022, 2024)
Giovanni Villalobos (2024)

Costume Design

Humberto Leon

Lighting Design

Brandon Stirling Baker

Sound Design

Abe Jacob

Duration

24 minutes

Cast

20 dancers

Premiere

January 26, 2017
New York City Ballet

PNB Premiere

March 18, 2022

The PNB premiere of Justin Peck’s The Times Are Racing is generously underwritten by Susan Brotman.

“The Times Are Racing is not a polemic. It is arresting and complex, its moods encompassing anger and mischief, despair, resistance, antic goofiness, and ecstatic union. But it suggests the ways in which ballet can be agitated and agitating, a space to process contemporary life, and maybe experience catharsis. If ballet has traditionally been a world apart — a place where bodies are idealized, performing impossible feats with what looks like uncanny ease — Peck invites the audience to identify with the dancers and suffuses his architectural creations with hints of recognizable intimacy.” –The New York Times

One of the most buzzed about premieres of 2017, The Times Are Racing is a sneaker ballet that sees its dancers in streetwear designed by Opening Ceremony, drawing inspiration from a variety of dance styles while matching Dan Deacon’s electronic score with youthful impulse and vigor.

Justin Peck’s The Times Are Racing is set to the last four tracks of Dan Deacon’s expansive 2012 album, America. The ballet for 20 dancers is Peck’s second collaboration with fashion designer Humberto Leon of Opening Ceremony, following New Blood, which premiered at NYCB’s 2015 Fall Gala. The lighting is by Peck’s frequent collaborator Brandon Stirling Baker.

Program note courtesy of New York City Ballet.

Artist Biographies

Justin Peck

Justin Peck is a Tony Award winning choreographer, director, filmmaker, and dancer based in New York City. He is currently the acting Resident Choreographer of New York City Ballet. Peck has created and developed over 50 dance and theater works for stages around the world, including Lincoln Center, Broadway, Palais Garnier, Sydney Opera House, & Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has created extensively for film, most notably choreographing Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021). In 2024, Peck directed and choreographed the original Broadway musical Illinoise. Honors include the Tony Award for Best Choreography for Carousel (2018) and Illinoise (2024), the National Arts Award (2018), the Golden Plate Honor from the Academy of Achievement (2019), the Bessie Award for Rodeo (2015), and the World Choreography Award for the film West Side Story (2021).