Tiler Peck On Bringing ‘Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends’ Back to City Center

In 2022, New York City Ballet’s beloved ballerina Tiler Peck curated a show for New York City Center’s inaugural Artists at the Center program: Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends. The show received critical and audience acclaim in New York City, went on to perform at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London (where the piece Time Spell received an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Dance Production) and then toured Peck’s home state of California. It is now returning to City Center for an encore presentation from October 16 to 19—great news for those of us who missed the popular show the first time around.

The program includes fresh (as in, they first premiered in 2022) works of ballet, contemporary and tap dance from some of the greatest choreographers working today. It opens with the quartet The Barre Project, Blake Works II by modern ballet pioneer William Forsythe, set to music by James Blake, followed by Peck’s sextet Thousandth Orange, set to live music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw. After that is the duet Swift Arrow by San Francisco’s king of contemporary ballet, Alonzo King, with music by jazz composer Jason Moran. And closing the program is the City Center commission Time Spell, a collaboration between Peck, tap dance queen Michelle Dorrance, and Emmy-nominated contemporary choreographer Jillian Meyers, with music by Aaron Marcellus and Penelope Wendtlandt. Peck dances in all the works except her own, and the show’s all-star cast also includes fellow NYCB company members India Bradley, Chun Wai Chan, Christopher Grant, Mira Nadon, Quinn Starner, and Ryan Tomash, along with Boston Ballet principal dancer Jeffrey Cirio, dancer and So You Think You Can Dance season 14 winner Lex Ishimoto and tap dancer Byron Tittle.

Observer recently spoke with Peck—always warm, humble and on the move—about her excitement for the show’s encore presentation, her bottomless desire to grow as an artist and her love and admiration for her friends.

How did Turn It Out with Tiler & Friends first come together?

I have curated other shows, but this is the only program I’ve ever created from scratch. None of these pieces existed before I asked the choreographers to make them. So Turn It Out with Tiler feels the most special to me, because it’s kind of like my little child.

I started working on it during the pandemic. I’d always wanted to work with Bill Forsythe, and he had wanted to work with me, but we could never get our schedules together. So I called him and said, “Hi, Bill, I know everything’s, like, shut down, but would you want to work together? I know it’s not ideal.” And he was like, “When can we start?” And I was like, “How about tomorrow?” And so that’s how that piece came about. We just started working together over Zoom. We didn’t know what it would become. After a while, he said, “I think we need to bring some gentlemen in.” And so we did. After we finished The Barre Project, we released it on film so people could see it. But the first time it was ever performed live was at City Center for this show, and the only time we’ve ever done it with the original cast, the way he created it, is during this particular Turn It Out with Tiler show that we tour.

What about the Alonzo King piece?

It was the same thing. I called Alonzo and said, “I really want to work with you. How would you feel about creating something for me?” And he said, “Oh my gosh, I would love to.” And so we made a little bubble in San Francisco. There were just four of us in the room. And he created a pas de deux for Roman and me during that time, which has also only been seen whenever this show is done. My choreography, Thousandth Orange, began at the Vail Dance Festival, but this version we perform is very different. Time Spell was created specifically for this show and has only ever been performed in this show.

How has it been returning to Thousandth Orange, a work you created a few years ago?

It’s nice because I can adjust it for the dancers who are doing it now. It doesn’t have to be a museum piece. That’s one great thing about being a living choreographer—you can still make those changes!

When you first performed the show and toured it, what responses did you get from the audience?

I think Time Spell really transports people. When I’m in the wings listening to Penny and Aaron sing, I feel that, but I wasn’t sure how the audience would react. It’s really hard, I think, to try to mix styles without it looking like “Oh, there’s a tap dancer and there’s a ballet dancer and contemporary dancer and they’re all trying to dance together!” But to me, the seamlessness of how this is blended, you don’t even realize that you’re watching so many different forms of dance in one piece. And so many of the dancers are multitalented. Like Lex is tapping alongside Michelle Dorrance, but then doing a pas de deux with me, because he can do ballet too. A lot of people have told me Time Spell does not leave them. They don’t always understand how to explain it, but they’re so moved by it. And that’s been the case every time we’ve performed it.

How did you go about making that piece?

I wanted to work with Michelle, and Michelle had the idea to bring Jillian Meyers in, too. So the three of us really worked together. They’re so talented. I just helped blend the ballet into it. But everybody was super collaborative. Michelle is just… I don’t know, she’s just like the most talented person I know, and this is, I think, one of her favorite things she’s ever made.

What excites you about returning to this program again?

The nice thing about getting to do something more than once is that you get to dive deeper into each piece and role. And I feel like that’s what’s so beautiful about the show now—it’s really finding its roots, and everybody feels comfortable in it.

These are the most incredible artists to be surrounded by. I think all of us love being in the room together, because we each feel like we grow by getting to work with one another. We all push each other. And we become a really tight family of people. I think that feeling comes across in the show because the works were created during a time when nobody was able to be together. This was the first thing we could do. We were in masks when we first started! And so it really has this feeling of longing, of not being with somebody, and then coming back, and the intersections that happen there. I feel like the more that we all understand the work, the richer it’s become. And because we don’t get to do it often, every time we dance together, it feels fresh.

What’s it like dancing styles so different from what you normally do at NYCB?

Growing up, I wasn’t a classical dancer at all. I took ballet so that my technique would be strong, but I was really a jazz contemporary dancer. So I think that’s why I feel so comfortable in these types of work. At this point in my career, I want to be pushed by choreographers, and not just physically. Alonzo really digs deep into the human side of dancing. He is kind of like a philosopher, and I was interested in growing that way as a dancer. When you’re in the studio with him, you learn so much about yourself and about dance and the world. He has this way of sharing that’s unlike any other choreographer, I think.

And Bill is the most musical person ever, so working with him was like a dream. The way he would explain things like compressing and stretching time, it felt like I was getting a lesson on how to choreograph and dance at the same time every time we worked.

And you’re so musical, too—that’s a great pairing!

You know what’s funny? The one person who makes me feel not musical is Michelle. She can hear notes and beats that my ear doesn’t even go to, and I think I’m musical, so that’s why I’m always so interested in working with her. She’s constantly pushing me to hear and see and explore even further. What I love about this show is that it’s everything. It combines so many types of dance forms into one. I only wear pointe shoes for one of the pieces! It’s more than just a ballet performance. It’s an evening of dance.

Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends is at New York City Center October 16-19, 2025.

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