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By Miranda Stuck
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Published on May 8, 2025
Harrison Ball's "New Ancient Strings." Photo: Elyse Mertz
Works & Process Presents New Jersey Ballet: Maria Kowroski and Harrison Ball
Peter B. Lewis Theater, Guggenheim New York
Artistic Director: Maria Kowroski
Choreographer: Harrison Ball
Moderator: Donya Archer Bommer
Excerpts from New Ancient Strings
Costumes: Zac Posen
Dramaturg: Alexandra Posen
Music: Toumani Diabate and Ballaké Sissoko
April 14, 2025
“Show it, don’t feel it,” says choreographer Harrison Ball while correcting a dancer of New Jersey Ballet. “You know what the music feels like; just echo it.” Within minutes, the audience, along with Ball, witnesses the dancer transform. She reattempts the movement with more intent and fragility, emulating the musical detail Ball asks for during his open rehearsal for Works & Process.
Excerpts of New Ancient Springs are shown at the Guggenheim Museum’s Peter B. Lewis Theater interspersed with discussion between New Jersey Ballet Artistic Director Maria Kowroski and moderator Donya Archer Bommer. This is Ball’s second commission for the company, following his 2023 Purcell Suite. The work takes on a large scale, spanning just over 30 minutes with a cast of 19 dancers.
New Ancient Springs had its premiere on April 24 for the company’s spring gala at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, alongside Twyla Tharp’s Nine Sinatra Songs. “What I immediately realized was that the piece was calling for a larger stage,” says Ball, reflecting on the performance. “The choreography comes from what I was trained to do, which is to travel.”
As a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, Ball comes from a background of Balanchine repertoire and acting — a history he shares with Kowroski, who spent over 25 years with the company. Kowroski worked with Ball at New York City Ballet as a dancer, coaching his debut in Swan Lake. “It’s very different to see [Ball] as a dance choreographer; I think he’s more comfortable as a choreographer,” says Kowroski. “He has something to say.”
Kowroski assumed artistic leadership of New Jersey Ballet in 2021, and she brings her voice to the company in multiple ways. Bommer points out the influence Kowroski has used to raise the profile of New Jersey Ballet by engaging established artists such as Christopher Wheeldon, Misty Copeland, and Wendy Whelan to teach the company. In addition to cultivating the dancers’ growth in their freedom and abandonment as artists, she has tackled the challenges of running a smaller company, managing to double the budget within the last three years.
Kowroski specifically emphasizes the importance of bringing in newly commissioned works. “As a dancer, having new works created on me [allowed choreographers] to find things in me that I didn’t know I had,” says Kowroski to Bommer. Prior to New Ancient Springs, Ball was creating work for the New York Choreographic Institute when the costume designer Zac Posen (who is also Ball’s husband), sent Kowroski a four-minute clip of his work. His breathtaking movement and attention to detail sparked intrigue, blossoming into a collaborative relationship between Ball, Kowroski, and New Jersey Ballet.
The dancers step on stage to present an excerpt from the second movement of New Ancient Springs. As delicate strumming begins, a candid rehearsal clip plays on screen, giving the audience parallel insight to Ball’s in-studio process.
The choreographer melds theatricality and tenderness, creating moments of luscious curvature of the arms and stillness of the body. He places immense attention on the dancers’ hands as they mimic sweeping water off the floor or gently waving goodbye to someone in the distance. Posen’s costumes, round and whimsically silky, drape over the male dancers’ torsos as women sit atop their shoulders, perched and statuesque among the fluttering notes of the kora in a playful score by Malian musicians Toumani Diabate and Ballaké Sissoko.
Kowroski’s generous leadership is reflected in the company dancers; their malleability and openness to artistic insight is clearly displayed while in process with Ball. The push and pull between old and new influences in the repertoire of New Jersey Ballet is intriguing for audiences who enjoy versatility in style and era. “It’s been really exciting,” says Kowroski. “I think we've come a long way in the last three years.”
As the company gains momentum and visibility, Ball’s exploration of new movement and stylistic choices has grown as well. “Through this work, I feel a growing sense of direction and am looking forward to the next opportunity to develop my ideas and voice further,” says Ball. “I would be thrilled to see the two works I have created for New Jersey Ballet find new life with other companies.”
