Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain”
Annie Proulx’s iconic 1997 short story Brokeback Mountain is heading to the stage in an entirely new theatrical form, bringing its deeply moving, groundbreaking story of forbidden love between two ranch hands to the world of dance.
A brand-new production and commission, Brokeback Mountain, the Ballet, is set to open the upcoming Works & Process Underground Uptown Dance Festival at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Developed through the incubator’s signature residency model, the full-length ballet adapts Proulx’s searing portrait of the American West, emotional restraint, and the enduring, tragic longing of the decades-long romance between Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist. The production features visionary choreography by acclaimed dance maker Pontus Lidberg and a sweeping, newly commissioned original score by composer David Conte.
The premiere anchors the 5th annual Underground Uptown Dance Festival, running from January 13–18, 2027. Part of the broader JanArtsNYC initiative, the festival highlights fully funded Works & Process creative residencies that bring groundbreaking collaborations from studio to stage.
By translating Proulx’s text into movement and music, Lidberg and Conte’s collaboration aims to capture the rugged, isolated landscape and the fierce, unspoken vulnerabilities of the story’s central queer relationship, offering audiences an entirely fresh, physical expression of a modern literary and cinematic classic.
Get tix directly via the official Works & Process website or the Guggenheim Museum Box Office
