Exclusive: Watch This Site-Specific Short Film Starring Members of NYCB

Yesterday we told you about New York City Ballet corps dancers Emily Kikta and Peter Walker, the duo behind the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s video campaign in advance of NYCB’s summer residency. Each day this week, SPAC has released one of eight short films on its website and social media channels that were choreographed, co-directed and filmed by the two dancers. And they’re giving us an exclusive look at the last one of the series.

Shot on location this spring in Saratoga Springs and Troy, New York, these films shows NYCB dancers frolicking in train stations, parks, race tracks and other iconic locations in the area. Fittingly, this last one was filmed onstage at SPAC, where the company opens its summer season July 5. Starring Walker and NYCB corps members Devin Alberda, Meaghan Dutton-O’Hara, Mimi Staker, Sebastian Villarini-Velez, Sarah Villwock and Giovanni Villalobos, it shows off the theater’s gorgeous natural surroundings.

This isn’t the first time Kikta and Walker have collaborated on both film and choreography. Walker, who premiered his first ballet on NYCB last fall, is choreographing another work on the company in 2018, while Kikta has been studying film at Fordham University (she graduates this December). “I love seeing how you can manipulate and control it, how much things change,” she says. In fact, Kikta’s previous film projects are what sparked SPAC president and CEO Elizabeth Sobol to commission the project. Make sure to keep these two on your radar for more projects in the future.