A fresh season of City Ballet The Podcast kicks off with New Combinations host and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan in conversation with Repertory Director Craig Hall, Company Pianist Craig Baldwin, and Principal Dancer Chun Wai Chan. Each is intimately involved in the development of Justin Peck's Copland Dance Episodes, NYCB's first non-narrative, evening-length work since Balanchine's 1967 piece Jewels. As Baldwin, Chan, and Hall relate, the experience of taking part in this momentous creation is one rich with the beauty and distinctly American qualities of Copland's music, and the sense of unfettered humanity and community in Peck's choreographic process. (44:50)

Edited by Emilie Silvestri

Music: "Sisyphus" by Andrew Wegman Bird Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. as agent for Muffet Music Co "Fanfare for the Common Man" (1942), "Rodeo" (1942), "Billy the Kid" (1938), "Appalachian Spring" (1944) by Aaron Copland Performed by Craig Baldwin