Justin Peck

Justin Peck is the Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor of New York City Ballet. One of the most acclaimed and in-demand choreographers of his generation, he has created more than 35 works for NYCB and other dance companies around the world. His artistic collaborators include composers Dan Deacon, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Sufjan Stevens; and visual artists John Baldessari, Jules de Balincourt, Marcel Dzama, Shepard Fairey, Karl Jensen, and Sterling Ruby; and fashion designers Tsumori Chisato, Prabal Gurung, Mary Katrantzou, Humberto Leon, and Dries Van Noten. Outside of NYCB, Peck has created ballets for the Paris Opéra Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, and L.A. Dance Project, and his works have also been performed by Dutch National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Acosta Danza, Hong Kong Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Pennsylvania Ballet, among other companies.

A native of San Diego, California, Peck studied at California Ballet before enrolling at the School of American Ballet in 2003. He was named an apprentice in 2006, joined the NYCB corps de ballet in spring 2007, and was promoted to Soloist in February 2013. His repertory as a dancer included ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, among others, in addition to performing in his own works. Peck first choreographed as a student at SAB in 2005. He participated in a working session at the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of NYCB, in the fall of 2009, and received NYCI’s first year-long choreographic residency in 2011. He was named NYCB’s Resident Choreographer, the second in the Company’s history, in July 2014. Peck also served as a member of NYCB’s interim artistic team from December 2017 until his appointment as Artistic Advisor in February 2019, working closely with the artistic leadership on programming and choreographic commissions. Peck transitioned off NYCB’s dancer roster following NYCB’s 2019 Spring Season.

Peck was the subject of the 2014 documentary Ballet 422, which followed him for two months as he created NYCB’s 422nd original ballet, Paz de la Jolla. In 2015, his ballet Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes won the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production and he is the recipient of the 2018 Ted Arison Young Artist Award. Peck won a 2018 Tony Award for his choreography for the Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. He is the choreographer of the upcoming film adaptation of West Side Story, directed by Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg.