David Hallberg and Justin Peck can't quite remember how they first met. "We probably took a class at Steps or something," Hallberg grins, rattling off a few more insider locations in New York frequented by the creative glitterati where they might have crossed paths. The truth is, the ballet contemporaries - Hallberg is 40; Peck, 35 - were bound to meet one way or another in the city that never sleeps. "That's the great thing about New York," Peck explains. "It's a small town in a weird way."
What Hallberg, artistic director of The Australian Ballet, and Peck, resident choreographer at the New York City Ballet since 2014 and a once-in-a-generation dance talent hailed by as the man “making ballet cool again”, agree on, though, is their mutual admiration for each other’s work. “I remember watching David perform at the Met,” Peck enthuses. “I became the ultimate fangirl,” Hallberg shoots back. “I was coming to the premieres. I was writing you text messages, fanning out. The tables turned!”
