Celebrating Jessica Lang, PNB’s Resident Choreographer

As PNB’s current season draws to a close, we are looking ahead to the 2025/26 Season. This will mark Jessica Lang’s second year as PNB’s Resident Choreographer! PNB will celebrate Lang with our ALL LANG program in May of 2026, as well as her new ballet for children Momotaro. Keep reading to learn more about Jessica Lang, her choreographic process, and what you can look forward to next season!

Jessica Lang began dancing at the age of three. During her senior year at Juilliard, she started dancing with Twyla Tharp’s company. But she quickly realized she wanted more. Lang entered Hubbard Street II’s National Choreographic Competition in the summer of 1999. Now, she is a celebrated choreographer of her generation. Lang has created over 100 original works on companies worldwide, including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, PNB, The Royal Ballet, and her eponymous company Jessica Lang Dance. She has won several awards, including the Martha Hill Mid-Career Award, an Arison Award, and a Bessie Award, as well as fellowships at NY City Center and NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts.  

Lang’s journey with PNB began in 2015 with PNB’s performances of The Calling, and a prolific partnership quickly formed. In 2016, Lang partnered with PNB to create Her Door to the Sky, which was commissioned in part by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and performed internationally by the company. Lang returned to PNB with Ghost Variations in 2020, and again for Let Me Mingle Tears With Thee in 2023. Black Wave (2024) was Lang’s first work as PNB’s Resident Choreographer. She is currently developing Momotaro for PNB’s family Matinee Series with Kanji Segawa. This hour-long, narrative ballet is based on a Japanese folk story about a boy who befriends animals, fights ogres, and seeks his fortune. In May of 2026, PNB’s ALL LANG program will celebrate Lang’s versatility, virtuosity, and varied choreographic inspiration by featuring some of her most beloved works!

Look at a Lang ballet, and you’ll see a unique but thoughtful inspiration behind it. Her Door to the Sky is inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings; Ghost Variations by Clara’s and Robert Schumann’s lives and adversities. She explains: “I am always working in that I am living every day with an awareness that inspiration will be in my surroundings. I call them ‘winks;’ when something sparkles at me, and my visceral response is ‘that is a dance.’ Whether it be music, art, sculpture, world events, poetry, history, et cetera, the entry point behind the motivation to make a dance creation will be different.” Perhaps these interdisciplinary inspirations lead to Lang’s rich dances, which often utilize intricate set pieces, beautiful costumes, and striking music.

When you have the right team with creatives who have similar visions, the trust you place in each other is incredible. – Jessica Lang

PNB’s 2025/26 Season will celebrate Jessica Lang with our ALL LANG program and Momotaro. Lang is excited about these programs: “[ALL LANG] will demonstrate how important working consistently with the same company over a generation of dancers is, and how this relationship affects our growth as artists and human beings.” ALL LANG includes the vibrant Her Door to the Sky, the poignant Ghost Variations, and a work new to PNB audiences, ZigZag.

We would be remiss to not mention Lang’s partner and choreographic associate Kanji Segawa. Segawa is the Creative Associate and Story Adapter for Momotaro. Momotaro, or “Peach Boy,” is based on a popular Japanese folk tale, and Segawa brings his cultural heritage to the work. According to Lang, “Kanji brings so much to my process, he’s so valuable.” This hour-long, narrated ballet will be performed entirely by PNB School students, and is an add-on performance to PNB’s season.

Dive deeper with this fascinating conversation between PNB’s Artistic Director Peter Boal and Jessica Lang.