About the work
New Suite is a ballet sequence by William Forsythe from 2012. It gathers eight pas de deux that Forsythe extracted from three earlier works, reworked and reassembled like a poem in eight verses. Set to music by George Frideric Handel, Luciano Berio and Johann Sebastian Bach, the duets unfold a spectrum of moods and relationships and showcase Forsythe's characteristic expansion of classical ballet.
Plot
New Suite tells no continuous story. Across eight consecutive pas de deux, Forsythe distils varied constellations of closeness, tension and separation. From the classical vocabulary he develops shifted balances, extreme lines and a highly precise musicality; each duet is its own small study of the relationship between two bodies in space, together tracing an arc from Baroque clarity to modern intensity.
Cultural significance
As a compilation drawn from key works, New Suite condenses Forsythe's decades-long engagement with classical ballet and its deconstruction. The sequence is danced by many companies worldwide and serves as a concentrated introduction to his art of the pas de deux. It opened Ballett Zürich's mixed bill Timeframed (2026).