Justin Peck Quotes

Justin Peck

Profession : Dancer

Birth : September 8, 1987

I try and create choreography that's in conversation with the music that the audience is hearing.

Justin Peck

I've always thought of the process of creating ballets as being this kind of team effort. It's not like being a painter, where you have your paint, and you have canvas, and you just go at it. I'm working with these living, breathing, functioning human beings, and they have their own thoughts and ideas about what works well movement-wise.

Justin Peck

When I saw 'Hamilton,' there was so much information so fast, I had to keep up with it. I find that quality in art exhilarating.

Justin Peck

What's always interested me the most about ballet is it's this great opportunity for many different artistic mediums to come together to create a cohesive experience.

Justin Peck

Balanchine was just able to strike the balance between literal narrative and abstract dance.

Justin Peck

I never intended to dance in my own work, but we did what had to be done.

Justin Peck

I would love to work with Joanna Newsom on a ballet. I think that would be amazing. She has a gift for orchestrating and composing, and I think she would be really engaging to work with.

Justin Peck

I think that story ballets, as great as they might sell, they're a really dated and awkward medium to tell stories through. I think there needs to be an updated or different approach to storytelling in dance. There needs to be less of a separation between the storytelling and the dancing.

Justin Peck

When I put on my consumer hat, and I'm buying tickets to be entertained, I'm not interested in seeing, like, 'Don Quixote.' Unless someone really spectacular is dancing.

Justin Peck

The idea of having a narrative guiding the viewer through and grasping their attention is a really compelling thing.

Justin Peck

I'm not a very good dancer. My feet don't point far enough; my extension is embarrassing. Dance, for me, has been hard because it's a strive for perfection.

Justin Peck

If I get a commission, it's like a flood of creative thought and energy.

Justin Peck

My philosophy on choreography is that the making of a ballet is a team effort, and we're in this together. It's not me hammering on them. It's more about how we can elevate this piece collectively to something great.

Justin Peck

It's expensive to get studio space and dancers. My whole first three years, I was sneaking around in the studios and getting kicked out of them. It was kind of depressing.

Justin Peck

My movement is usually about finding the balance between artistry, athleticism, and musicality. It always originates with a classical basis and expands outwards from that platform.

Justin Peck

There's something refreshing about going to work with a different group of dancers. There are different ways of moving, different ways in which the institution functions. There's a contrast from place to place, so the variety and the experience of working in a different place feeds me.

Justin Peck

There's an innate feeling when I choreograph in juxtaposition to how I feel as a dancer. When I choreograph, I never really look into the mirror. But as dancers, we always check ourselves in the mirror. I do feel that when I choreograph, I am making a dance on my own body. Much of it is my own response to the music.

Justin Peck

There is something about Dior that reminds me of New York City Ballet. They both have a classic, glamorous basis but are trying to evolve the arts in new and innovative ways.

Justin Peck

There is something very cyclical about the way fashion designers work. They work and work and work, the collection is finally shown, and after those 15 minutes, they must start over from the beginning. This is not unlike the way I work creating new dances.

Justin Peck

My intention is to make sure that the new work being created for the ballet world is relevant.

Justin Peck