X-Ray is a short ballet Peter Martins made in 1994 for New York City Ballet, set to John Adams' Violin Concerto, a score jointly commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra and City Ballet. It premiered as a standalone piece at the New York State Theater in November 1994, but within a year Martins folded it into a larger three-movement work built on the same concerto.
What is danced
The source article gives no description of the choreography itself — no steps, no partnering, no formations, nothing about how Martins responded to Adams' score. It is limited to production facts: the commissioning arrangement, the premiere date and venue, and the later absorption of the piece into a longer ballet. Anything said here about vocabulary or technique would be invention rather than reporting, so none is offered.
Context
The article does not place the work in a broader dance-historical narrative beyond identifying Martins as New York City Ballet's balletmaster in chief at the time and naming the joint orchestra/ballet commission of Adams' score — a collaboration model (new concert music co-commissioned with a resident choreographer in mind) that was part of how City Ballet renewed its repertory in the 1990s.
Staging history
The piece did not remain a freestanding ballet for long: the article states that from June 1995 it has been performed as the third movement of a larger Martins work, described as an 'Adams Violin Concerto' ballet, built on the same score. No other revivals, companies, or restagings are mentioned.
How to watch it
The article gives nothing to guide viewing — no synopsis, no cast, no critical description — so there is no basis here for staging or performance-convention notes beyond knowing it now surfaces only as the third movement of a longer ballet rather than as an independent piece.
Credits
- composer: John Adams