FLUIDITY

Justin Peck finds his feet.

- JENNIFER HOMANS

Peck’s new work fuses three famous ballet scores by Aaron Copland.

Two weeks ago, with his new dance, “Copland Dance Episodes,” Justin Peck finally became Justin Peck. And New York City Ballet emerged from its post-Balanchine sleep and found, at least for a moment, a new self. We have waited a very long time— through years of bitter disagreement over the company’s legacy, through the embattled leadership of Peter Martins, and through season after season of mediocre new ballets that suggested a company unable to move on. More recently, the company suffered a spate of egregious #MeToo scandals and embarked on a long-overdue racial reckoning.

Peck grew up in this era. He arrived at the School of American Ballet in 2003, when he was fifteen; joined N.Y.C.B. as a dancer four years later; and soon began making dances. In 2014, he became the company’s resident choreographer. With early works such as “Year of the Rabbit” (2012), to a score by Sufjan Stevens, Peck became an instant star and an avatar for his generation. Here was a choreographer, it seemed, who had a fresh dance vocabulary—classical but relaxed, easy, and flowing.