SPAC’s 20th Century Masters program will pay homage to iconic choreographers Merce Cunningham, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine.

Opening the program is Balanchine’s Chaconne, by turns elegiac and courtly, beginning with a dreamlike prologue and concluding with a grand series of classical dances.

Highlighting the program is Cunningham’s Summerspace, which has not been performed at SPAC since 1967. The piece, part of NYCB’s 2019 fall season and originally planned for SPAC’s 2020 season, was performed in honor of the 100th anniversary of Cunningham’s birth. The piece is indicative of Cunningham’s unique collaborative method, in which Morton Feldman composed the score, Robert Rauschenberg designed the décor, and Cunningham choreographed independently from each other. Together, the movement, music, and décor give the effect of a balmy, summer day.

The program will culminate with Glass Pieces, composed by Philip Glass with choreography by Jerome Robbins. Expansive in scope and streamlined in style, Glass Pieces captures the pulsating heartbeat of metropolitan life with its charged, urban choreography, concluding in a finale that propels the corps de ballet across the stage at an electrifying pace.