Alysa Pires returns with a new creation that expands her distinctive choreographic voice, blending fluid musicality with a nuanced sense of structure and style. Building on the rhythmic sophistication and jazz-inflected energy of her earlier work, Pires crafts a piece that is both elegant and emotionally resonant. Her choreography weaves together precision and spontaneity, offering dancers space for individuality while maintaining a refined, cohesive aesthetic.

Forgoing elaborate costumes, set design, and even musical accompaniment, Moves enthralls with the unexpected intensity derived from sounds produced by the dancers themselves.

Whether a ballet tells a story or concerns itself with pure dance, its form is determined by the web of music on which it is composed according to the interpretations of the choreographer. The score conditions, supports, predicts, and establishes the dynamics, tempos, and mood, not only for the dancers, but also for the audience. The music acts as a base for the spectators’ responses to the happenings on stage and creates a pervasive atmosphere for reaction. Moves severs that guidance and permits the audience to respond solely to the action of the dance, to become aware of the potential to gesture, to respond directly to the curiosity of movement, and to be released from the associations evoked by scenery, costumes, and music.

Brooding and intensely physical, Oltremare traces a journey toward a new life, capturing both the hardships of departure and the surge of anticipation that comes with the unknown.

The ballet is Mauro Bigonzetti’s third work for New York City Ballet, all set to music by his longtime collaborator Bruno Moretti. Premiered in 2008, Oltremare—meaning “beyond the sea”—explores the emotional landscape of those leaving their homeland in search of a better future. It begins at the port, where farewells are exchanged, and follows an unfolding voyage marked by shared moments of sorrow, hope, and exhilaration—tears, laughter, embraces—until everything dissolves, like the fading hues of an old postcard.