Miami City Ballet Honors the Contemporary with Peck: Miami in Motion

Wrapping up its opening weekend at the Arsht Center in Miami, Miami City Ballet’s Peck: Miami in Motion offers an evening devoted entirely to the work of Justin Peck, one of the most visible choreographers exploring contemporary ballet. The program features three of his ballets: “Year of the Rabbit,” “Chutes and Ladders,” and “Heatscape.” These trace more than a decade of Peck’s creative output. An homage to the choreographer, the performance on opening night was both beautiful and forgettable; I was left thinking on certain moments, already losing trace of the awe that usually lingers after the final bow.

Programming three works by the same choreographer is a bold curatorial gesture, one that emphasizes Miami City Ballet’s willingness to champion a living artist’s voice. In many ways, the decision makes sense: Peck’s work straddles a line between tradition and innovation. Yet the choice also felt detached, with no clear throughline from ballet to ballet besides the choreographer’s name. In this sense, Peck: Miami in Motion became less an evening of reflection, but confusion.

The opening work, “Year of the Rabbit,” remains one of Peck’s most musically ambitious collaborations, and Sufjan Stevens’ radiant score is worth the watch in and of itself. Still, the performance took time to ignite. The dancers seemed to require several movements to synchronize with the score’s shifting currents, their energy more tentative. By mid-ballet, the ensemble found its footing. The second work, “Chutes and Ladders,” offered a contrasting intimacy; a pas de deux inspired by a string quartet. Originally conceived in-the-round, it felt constrained within this format. It’s hard not to wonder what that would’ve looked like. Would I have enjoyed it more? The quartet positioned on stage, though captivating, at times pulled focus from the interplay between the two dancers.

The evening came fully alive in “Heatscape,” Peck’s collaboration with street artist Shepard Fairey, whose mandala-inspired designs transformed the stage into a radiant urban landscape. Here, the dancers moved with confidence and connection, embodying the sense of community that defines the work. Shimon Ito, in particular, delivered a standout performance, his dancing electric and mercurial, capturing the ballet’s buoyancy with very-natural charisma. If the earlier pieces felt like sketches, “Heatscape” was the completed canvas: a convergence of art, music, and motion that finally made the program’s title feel earned. Peck: Miami in Motion may not have achieved perfect cohesion, but its final moments affirmed the company’s vitality and the enduring promise of Peck’s evolving voice.

It was not the only stand-out for me on opening night, and there are some more praises in order. During “Year of the Rabbit,” which featured seven figures from the Chinese Zodiac, number six was subtitled “Year of the Lord,” performed by Macarena Giménez and Chase Swatosh, and perform they did. I have been singularly impressed with Swatosh’s mastery from other ballets and this one only cemented my opinion. Similarly, in “Chutes and Ladders,” both dancers from the pas de deux, Ashley Knox and Alexander Peters, were perfect. As said above, I believe this performance would have been absolutely taken up a notch if it were somehow repositioned to be back in-the-round; just my opinion. 

So many good things are happening at Miami City Ballet, and you don’t want to miss them. You can still catch Peck: Miami in Motion on November 1-2 at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. Their next performance is the annual run of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, from December 12-28.