This week, ABT was set to open its 80th Anniversary season at the Metropolitan Opera House with a celebration of the bold, diverse, inventive repertoire that has defined the Company since its founding in 1940. The planned “ABT Then” and “ABT Now” program was intended to showcase the best of the past and present and allow fans to revel in the dynamism of America’s National Ballet Company®.

Garden Blue, a 2018 ballet that represents “ABT Now,” features choreography by Jessica Lang and interactive sets designed by American artist Sarah Crowner. Hailed by The New York Times as a “memorable” “real theater piece,” the unique collaboration between Lang and Crowner blossomed organically into a “ravishing to look at” (dance critic Marina Harss) work inspired by the vibrancy of nature.

A “more visually driven choreographer than most” (The New York Times), Lang said upon visiting Sarah Crowner’s studio in 2018 she felt a “visceral connection” with the painter. “I immediately found that we were very like-minded: practical yet inventive with the parameters of how far we can push boundaries,” Lang has shared. The two artists, in their respective mediums of movement and paint, sculpted an invigorating dance from images, momentum, and structure.

Crowner has said that she likes exploring relationships in color in her artistry. Enjoy a slideshow of how her expertise in “pure, saturated, unfiltered color” blossoms in the ballet Garden Blue.