See Ballerina Tiler Peck as You've Never Seen Her Before: In Tap Shoes

August 7, 2017

The Vail Dance Festival in Vail, CO, is famous for pairing dancers from different companies with each other. And we love geeking out over that kind of fantasy casting. (Speaking of which: You HAVE to watch these videos of American Ballet Theatre’s Calvin Royal III and New York City Ballet’s Unity Phelan rehearsing Balanchine’s Agon pas de deux. šŸ”„ šŸ”„ šŸ”„ )

But VDF director Damian Woetzel also likes to have dancers try on completely foreign dance styles. And sometimes the results of those mad-scientist experiments are magicalā€”especially when NYCB’s Tiler Peck is involved.

Remember a few years back, when Peck proved she could hold her own with jooker Lil Buck? This year, Peck straight-up tap-danced in Michelle Dorrance’s piece for the NOW Premieres: Celebrating Women Choreographers program at Vail. It was her first time ever performing in tap shoes, and guys: She’s no slouch. See for yourself in the rehearsal clip she posted yesterday. (Snaps to former Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Melissa Toogood, in the pink vest, too.)