Justin Peck

Abstract

Justin Peck, barely thirty, not only is the resident choreographer at New York City Ballet (NYCB) but also is in demand by dance companies throughout the United States and in Europe. He received a Tony Award for his choreography for the 2018 Broadway production of Carousel, and Steven Spielberg hired him to choreograph Spielberg’s new film of West Side Story. This chapter focuses on Everywhere We Go, the spectacular “epic” that Peck and indie composer Sufjan Stevens made for NYCB in 2014, including discussions of Peck’s musicality, his composition of duets and use of sneakers in some dances, and influences he acknowledges from the works of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. At the end is an essay by Peck from 2008, “How to Become an Artist.”