Dancer Tiler Peck makes her choreography debut at the New York City Ballet

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Tiler Peck, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, choreographed her first ballet there, “Concerto for Two Pianos," and found it a joyful new way to lead the dancers.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/02/2024 (965 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tiler Peck, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, choreographed her first ballet there, “Concerto for Two Pianos,” and found it a joyful new way to lead the dancers.

“I have never been so nervous and excited at the same time,” Peck told The Associated Press. “Normally when there’s a performance, you know, I get a little nervous. But mostly, I know I can count on myself, but this is putting it in other dancers’ hands, and I have to just hold and have hope, and just trust in them that they will pull through.”

Sometimes it’s difficult to manage your peers in a new role, but Peck says the transition was easy.

FILE - Actress Tiler Peck attends the world premiere of
FILE - Actress Tiler Peck attends the world premiere of "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" at One Hanson on Thursday, May 9, 2019, in New York. Peck, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, choreographed her first ballet “Concerto for Two Pianos," which is playing there through Feb. 24, 2024. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

“I have so much joy and respect for them that I think it was… honestly just the best process,” Peck said. “I looked forward to it every single day.”

The most satisfying part was mentoring the dancers and seeing their skills improve.

“What I was hoping for more than anything was to inspire them as dancers and to give them tools that they could use in all of their ballets throughout their career, not just my ballet,” Peck said.

“Whether it be how to shape your foot when you’re running… things that they could carry over that I normally don’t get to say to them because I don’t want to overstep my place,” she said. “But here, I said everything I’ve ever wanted to say to be helpful, and I see it translating into their other work.”

Designer Zac Posen is a friend and a natural fit to design the costumes for Peck’s debut. Posen’s husband, Harrison Ball, was a dancer for New York City Ballet, so he knows the space and how to design for dancers’ movement.

Posen proposed that most of the dancers be in shades of blue and gray, with a pop of red for the lead female dancer.

The idea was to juxtapose “the rich and dark, dark crimson that can change color, and next to kind of a sea of like eight or nine different shades of inky blues, like morning glories at midnight, moving,” he said. “And then the men in these beautiful slate, simple grays, just so you can see their line and form.”

“Concerto for Two Pianos” is playing at the New York City Ballet through Feb. 24.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Estate of woman who died from local anesthetic injected into blood vessel sues Morden dentist, his business, clinic

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Preview

Estate of woman who died from local anesthetic injected into blood vessel sues Morden dentist, his business, clinic

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Yesterday at 4:08 PM CDT

The estate of a 23-year-old woman who died after receiving a local anesthetic during a wisdom tooth extraction at a Morden dental clinic has filed a lawsuit over her death.

Virginia Blatz never returned home after she went to Boundary Trails Dental Centre to have her wisdom teeth removed on Nov. 27, 2024. An autopsy later confirmed she died from local anesthetic systemic toxicity caused by an inadvertent injection into a blood vessel, her family has previously said.

Her father, Dulaney Blatz, filed a lawsuit in the Court of King’s Bench on behalf of her estate late last month, naming Ronald David Janz — the dentist who performed the procedure — his dental corporation and the dental corporation that operates the clinic as defendants.

None of the defendants have filed statements of defence in response to the claim, which has not yet been heard in court.

Read
Yesterday at 4:08 PM CDT

Stevenson set for first Jets start against Penguins

Ken Wiebe 5 minute read Preview

Stevenson set for first Jets start against Penguins

Ken Wiebe 5 minute read Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026

DETROIT — Clay Stevenson, the stage is yours.

As the Winnipeg Jets wrap up a two-game road trip on Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the newest member of the team will be between the pipes after Stuart Skinner got the call in the first two outings of the campaign.

There will be an element of familiarity for Stevenson, as PPG Paints Arena is where he made his first NHL appearance with the Washington Capitals on April 17, 2025.

“There is some comfortability in that building,” said Stevenson, who made 33 saves in a 5-2 loss to the Penguins in that NHL debut. “It’s always a great challenge to play against (Sidney) Crosby and (Evgeni) Malkin and those guys. It’s an honour to get into the crease anytime.”

Read
Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026

The election of our discontent: City at a crumbling crossroads, grumbling residents say in poll

Matthew Frank 7 minute read Preview

The election of our discontent: City at a crumbling crossroads, grumbling residents say in poll

Matthew Frank 7 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:16 PM CDT

There’s an undercurrent of unhappiness running through the Winnipeg electorate as the municipal election day approaches.

One-half of Winnipeggers believe the city is heading in the wrong direction, according to a new Abacus Data poll, with nearly one-third unsure if Winnipeg is regressing or progressing.

Only 21 per cent of residents believe the city is on the right track, the Free Press-commissioned poll found.

That discontentment extends to how the city spends its tax dollars, with four in 10 Winnipeggers believing they receive poor value for what they pay in property taxes.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 3:16 PM CDT

Band keeps plight of MMIWG close to heart on new track

Ben Waldman 6 minute read Preview

Band keeps plight of MMIWG close to heart on new track

Ben Waldman 6 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

Gabrielle Fontaine won’t stop talking about them and neither will her bandmates.

As a teenager, the Winnipeg songwriter — whose late father Vince was the passionate leader of musical projects including Eagle & Hawk — would volunteer at Wiping Away the Tears, an annual gathering hosted by Ka Ni Kanichihk that offers space for healing, ceremony and support for relatives of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

Though Indigenous people make up less than five per cent of the Canadian population, Indigenous women make up 16 per cent of all female homicide victims and 11 per cent of missing women, according to the Assembly of First Nations.

Seeking a way to help in the community, Fontaine regularly volunteered as a child-minder during memorial events, an experience she says shaped her outlook as a musical storyteller.

Read
2:00 AM CDT

Seven Wilsons, one regional spirit

Hersh Seth 5 minute read Preview

Seven Wilsons, one regional spirit

Hersh Seth 5 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

In Dryden, Ont., a 34-metre suspension bridge crosses the Wabigoon River rapids. It is named after a man who paid for a quarter of the bridge himself. A plaque recognizes Roy Wilson’s “many contributions to City Revitalization” and mentions his 40 years in the Rotary Club, whose motto is “service above self”.

My father sold business machines from the 1970s through the ’90s, during the shift from carbon copy machines and typewriters to photocopiers, fax machines, and early office computers and printers. His sales territory — which he covered mostly by car but also by propeller plane — was Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, and northwestern Ontario, though much of it really belonged to the Wilsons.

In business machines, selling the machine was only half the job — the other half was ensuring a technician would fix it in January. Wilson’s set the standard for dealers across most of my dad’s regions. My father worked with Roy’s son Greg (who would later go on to become mayor of Dryden) but really respected Roy for teaching Greg to run the company with the towns they served as the priority.

Wilson’s service routes went beyond where roads stopped. Even if customers lived north of the highway system, Wilson’s still found a way to help, using three company planes based at the Dryden airport. As a result, a stationery shop from a paper mill town served all of northwestern Ontario and later northern Manitoba. Imagine a photocopier strapped into a small plane, a technician beside it, and a gravel runway waiting at the other end.

Read
2:00 AM CDT

Dancer Tiler Peck makes her choreography debut at the New York City Ballet

Brooke Lefferts, The Associated Press 1 minute read Preview

Dancer Tiler Peck makes her choreography debut at the New York City Ballet

Brooke Lefferts, The Associated Press 1 minute read Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024

Tiler Peck, principal dancer for the New York City Ballet, choreographed her first ballet there, “Concerto for Two Pianos,” and found it a joyful new way to lead the dancers. “I have never been so nervous and excited at the same time,” Peck told The Associated Press. “Normally when there’s a performance, you know, I get a little nervous. But mostly, I know I can count on myself, but this is putting it in other dancers’ hands, and I have to just hold and have hope, and just trust in them that they will pull through.” Sometimes it’s difficult to […]

Read
Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024