''In the Countenance of Kings'' is a ballet choreographed by

Justin Peck Justin Peck (born September 8, 1987) is an American choreographer, director, and dancer associated with New York City Ballet, of which he was appointed Resident Choreographer in July 2014, being the second person in the history of the instituti ...

to music from

Sufjan Stevens Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nomi ...

's '' The BQE''. The ballet was Peck's first ballet made for the

San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Franc ...

, and premiered in 2016 at the

War Memorial Opera House The War Memorial Opera House is an opera house in San Francisco, California, located on the western side of Van Ness Avenue across from the west side/rear facade of the San Francisco City Hall. It is part of the San Francisco War Memorial and ...

Production

''In the Countenance of Kings'' is Peck's first work for the

and his 28th overall. When Peck made the ballet, he was a soloist and the resident choreographer with the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

. The ballet is set to

's '' The BQE'', a suite inspired by the

Brooklyn–Queens Expressway Interstate 278 (I-278) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Jersey and New York in the United States. The road runs from US Route 1/9 (US 1/9) in Linden, New Jersey, northeast to the Bruckner Interchange in the New York ...

(BQE), with the title of the ballet taken from the first movement of the suite. Peck said he made some of his best works to Stevens's music, and found it "very inspiring on a personal level". The score was reorchestrated by Michael P. Atkinson. The ballet is performed by six principal dancers and a twelve-person

corps de ballet In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French for "body of the ballet") is the group of dancers who are not principal dancers or soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and often work as a backdrop for the principal dancers. ...

. Though it is plotless, the dancers are credited with superhero names, with the female lead dancers as Quantus, Electress and Botanica, the three lead men as The Protagonist, The Foil and The Hero, and the corps de ballet as The School of Thought. These names were from ''The BQE'' and came up by Stevens. The costumes were designed by Ellen Warren and the lighting was by Brandon Stirling Baker.

Original cast

The lead dancers in the original cast are: *The Protagonist: Joseph Walsh *Quantus:

Dores André Dores André Rodríguez (born 1985) is a Spanish ballet dancer. She is currently a principal dancer at the San Francisco Ballet. Early life André was born in Vigo, Spain, to a professor and a doctor. When she was eleven, she was sent to a small ...

*Electress: Frances Chung *The Foil:

Gennadi Nedvigin San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Franc ...

*Botanical: Jennifer Stahl *The Hero:

Luke Ingham San Francisco Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the United States, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet under the leadership of ballet master Adolph Bolm. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Franc ...

Performances

The San Francisco Ballet premiered ''In the Countenance of Kings'' at the

on April 7, 2016. The

Pacific Northwest Ballet Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) is a ballet company based in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It is said to have the highest per capita attendance in the United States, with 11,000 subscribers in 2004. The company consists of 49 dan ...

in Seattle debuted it in 2019.

Short film

Before the premiere of ''In the Countenance of Kings'', the San Francisco Ballet released a short film preview, which features dancer Dores André daydream about the ballet following a rehearsal. The film was made by Ezra Hurwitz, during the company's performance season, at an abandoned train station. In the film, the dancers are in sneakers and leotards that are not the ballet's costumes. The company had never done such projects before, and according to Hurwitz, the management was convinced by principal dancers André and Frances Chung to green-light the film.

Critical reception

Allan Ulrich of

SFGate The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The p ...

called ''In the Countenance of Kings'' "the most exhilarating company commission in years." ''DanceTabs'' Claudia Bauer wrote that Peck "refreshes ballet vocabulary with a youthful, urbane sensibility that's more Robbins than it is

Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

, and specifically calls to mind '' NY Export: Opus Jazz''," and Peck also "devised ''Countenance'' with clever structures and cleverer transitions," though the music's "frequent shifts in theme and extremely short arcs, causes the mood to swing too low, too high, too fast."

References

{{Sufjan Stevens 2016 ballet premieres Ballets by Justin Peck Sufjan Stevens