Director’s Choice / Rhythm of the Heart

<p><strong><em>Director’s Choice / Rhythm of the Heart</em></strong> brings together two striking contemporary works that explore rhythm, melody, and the deeper patterns that shape who we are. Together, these works create a contemporary ballet experience that celebrates connection, inheritance, and the invisible rhythms that unite us.</p> <p><strong>Three-time Tony Award-winning choreographer Justin Peck’s <em>Partita</em></strong>, created for the New York City Ballet, is set to <strong>Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize-winning vocal score</strong>, and unfolds in a hypnotic cascade of interlocking movement, pulsing with rhythm, connection, and collective energy.</p> <p>Stephen Mills’ <strong><em>CARBON53</em></strong> offers a powerful counterpoint—Opening with the power of <strong>Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music,”</strong> and finishing with the beautiful cello of <strong>Philip Glass’s “Song III,”</strong> the work explores the concept of identity and the human body as a carbon copy, passed down through generations, slowly altered by time.</p>