To understand the artistic DNA of The Washington Ballet, one must look to Choo San Goh. As TWB’s first resident choreographer, then Associate Artistic Director, the late Singapore-born artist transformed the company during the 1980s, putting it on the international map with his electrifying inventiveness, fierce musicality, and breathtaking spatial geometry.

Though Configurations was originally commissioned in 1981 for ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov and American Ballet Theatre star Marianna Tcherkassky, it has its first preview at The Washington Ballet's Golden Gala. Its presence on this program is a tribute to Goh's lasting legacy and deep ties to the company's artistic lineage. Set to Samuel Barber’s emotionally charged Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, the ballet stands as a masterclass in Goh’s signature style—a seamless, high-velocity fusion of rigorous classical academic training and bold contemporary modernism.

Go-Go 50 features the central pas de deux from Configurations, an excerpt that distills the emotional and technical peak of Goh’s choreography. Often described by audiences and dancers alike as a "fragmented flashback of a relationship," the duet maps out the shifting emotional topography, memory, and lingering echoes of a partnership. 

Showcasing Goh’s sculptural beauty, the movement vocabulary pairs lightning-fast athletic precision with sweeping, architectural lines. The partnering is fluid, striking, and deeply intimate, capturing the vulnerable intersections of human connection.