Episode 104: Hear the Dance: In the Night

City Ballet The Podcast launches this season with a new Hear the Dance conversation, guest hosted by Silas Farley, who is joined by three generations of dancers who are well acquainted with Jerome Robbins' In the Night. Former Principal Dancer Kay Mazzo originated the lead role in the ballet's first movement, about "young love"; Repertory Director Christine Redpath took over coaching the ballet from colleague Victor Castelli; and Principal Dancer Unity Phelan is performing the lead role in the tempestuous third movement. As they discuss, In the Night's power resides in its effective representation of human relationships and what the choreography reveals of its dancers' inner lives; in Unity's words, "You get to really be yourself—to dig down inside yourself and find something you didn't know you had." (46:54)

Written by Silas Farley Edited by Emilie Silvestri

Music: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor Stravinsky Nocturne Opus 27, No. 1 (1835); Nocturnes Opus 55, No. 1 and No. 2 (1843); Nocturne Opus 9, No. 2 (1830-1831) for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin All music performed by the New York City Ballet Orchestra

Reading List:  Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Amanda Vaill Jerome Robbins, by Himself: Selections from His Letters, Journals, Drawings, Photographs, and an Unfinished Memoir by Jerome Robbins, Edited by Amanda Vaill Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance by Wendy Lesser Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times by Alan Walker Ballerina: A Biography of Violette Verdy by Victoria Huckenpahler Far from Denmark by Peter Martins