The New Chamber Ballet is a collaborative ensemble dedicated to creating new work at low cost. It is the brainchild of Artistic Director Miro Magloire, a German composer turned ballet dancer, who founded the group in 2004. Currently comprised of two choreographers, five ballerinas, a pianist, and a violinist, the New Chamber Ballet performs five weekend series a year in studio space at New York City Center. The ticket price is $22 for general admission, $12 for students and seniors.

This studio rental strategy allows Magloire to present an unusually large amount of new work, all with live music. Indeed, the New Chamber’s most important achievement is to remind audiences of the importance of live music for dance, which is now prohibitively expensive for many dance companies. Magloire makes dances that are neoclassical, abstract, and traditional: The women typically wear pointe shoes and costumes with short skirts. Magloire also has a talent for developing natural interactions between dancers and musicians into an elegant drama, taking the time to let dancer and musician acknowledge one another. Here the dancer-musician collaboration is greater than the sum of its parts.