Adams Violin Concerto is a plotless ballet made by Peter Martins, then New York City Ballet's Ballet Master in Chief, set to John Adams's Violin Concerto. The score itself had been jointly commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and New York City Ballet, and the stage premiere on 1 June 1995 at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, was also the first time the concerto had been heard in Manhattan.
What is danced
The article gives almost nothing about the actual choreographic vocabulary. Its only descriptive phrase is that this is a 'space age quintet' ballet, which points to a five-dancer structure (consistent with the five-name original cast the article lists: Nikolaj Hübbe, Darci Kistler, Nilas Martins, Jock Soto, and Wendy Whelan) rather than to any identifiable step vocabulary, holds, or technique. There is no synopsis, scene breakdown, or programme note describing what the dancers do, so no claims about specific movement can be supported from this source.
One concrete structural fact is preserved: the third movement of the score had already been danced under a separate title, 'X-Ray', before the full ballet was assembled for its 1995 premiere. This suggests Martins built or reworked the piece from an earlier single-movement study, but the article does not describe how that section's choreography compares with the rest of the work.
Context
By 1995 Peter Martins, as NYCB's chief choreographer and artistic director, was continuing the company's practice (inherited from Balanchine) of setting plotless, musically driven works to newly commissioned or recently written scores by contemporary composers. John Adams was by this point an established figure in American minimalist/post-minimalist concert music, and the joint commission of his Violin Concerto by two orchestras and a ballet company reflects the kind of cross-institutional commissioning common to that period. The ballet's premiere brought Adams's concerto into the New York theatrical repertory for the first time.
Staging history
The article documents only the single premiere run: 1 June 1995 at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, with the named five dancers. It notes that the third movement had an earlier life as a separate piece titled 'X-Ray' before being incorporated into the full ballet, but gives no information about subsequent revivals, cast changes, or restagings by other companies.
How to watch it
With only five credited principals and no corps described, expect a chamber-scale ballet built around shifting configurations of a small ensemble rather than large-group patterning. Because the article withholds any description of steps or partnering, audiences should watch for how the choreography answers Adams's concerto structurally — movement by movement — rather than expect a narrative frame.
Credits
- composer: John Adams
More from Peter Martins
Other staged works in the register connected to this one by author or lineage.