When Tiler Peck arrives in Santa Barbara for Ballet Festival: Jerome Robbins on March 3 and 4, she won’t just be the star performer. She’ll also be its architect. The celebrated principal dancer of the New York City Ballet curated the two-night program, shaping it as a homage and an invitation to explore the choreographic genius of Jerome Robbins.
“Jerry’s ballets really had a big influence on me growing up in the company,” Peck said in a recent episode of the UCSB Arts & Lectures Air Time podcast. “You really learn a lot about yourself, because it brings in the humanity of the dancer.” That human dimension, she explained, is central to Robbins’s style. “Sometimes he would say, ‘Easy does it.’ And sometimes that’s the hardest thing — to feel confident just standing onstage and not doing anything. He really says so much with subtle movements.”
The festival originated at The Joyce Theater in August 2025. Rather than a revue of disconnected Robbins showpieces, Peck wanted to present a cohesive experience. “It didn’t just feel like different companies coming in and doing pas de deux,” she said. “We really got to share the same stage with each other … That’s the meaning of a festival to me.”
Her programming reflects that philosophy. Each night culminates in a large ensemble work — including Dances at a Gathering and In the Night — so audiences can experience Robbins’s emotional range. “You almost wouldn’t think they were done by the same person,” Peck noted. “That’s what I mean by the range of his works.”
She is especially drawn to the choreographer’s restraint. “Less is almost more,” she said. “There’s so much walking in his ballets, but he’s able to capture those quiet moments so beautifully.” Those moments, she added, often move her most as a performer: “There’s a pas de deux where they’re just sitting on the floor doing nothing, and it really gets me.”
The Santa Barbara performances at The Granada Theatre will feature live music throughout, a requirement Peck insisted on. “It matters to the audience, and it matters to us dancers,” she said. “So much of what we do is because of the music, and when it’s live, it just adds so much more.”
The Wednesday, March 4, program will include A Suite of Dances danced by Peck, the first woman to dance this iconic role created by Jerome Robbins for Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Curating has become an increasingly important part of her artistic life. “I feel like I have a lot to give,” she reflected. “I’ve loved dancing other people’s ideas, and it’s really nice to have ideas of my own and put them into practice.” One day, she admits, she might even direct a company. For now, she’s content building temporary ones. “We get our mini little company for a few weeks,” she said, “and everybody’s so sad when it’s over.”
For Santa Barbara audiences, that fleeting company promises two nights of intimacy, virtuosity, and a rare chance to see Robbins’s legacy refracted through one of ballet’s most perceptive interpreters.
For more information, see artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.
