For the 21st-century repertory in this 75th anniversary season, New York City Ballet alternates between insiders, whose lingua franca is neoclassicism, and outliers, such as modern-dance choreographers Pam Tanowitz and Kyle Abraham. Tanowitz’s ballets take inspiration from its codified steps, and Abraham’s from the idiom’s courtly theatricality. She finds the rigid torso, horizontal arms, and busy feet curious—and leaves them curiouser. As with Merce Cunningham, a bracing strangeness overtakes the work. For his second piece for the company, to James Blake’s electronic melancholia, Abraham coordinates ballet’s gracious gestures and speedy virtuosity with hip-hop’s robotic popping and locking. In between bowing, the body seems capable of flying apart—or falling in love (nuzzling pas de deux emerge from the shadows). This spring, Abraham’s Love Letter (on shuffle) and Tanowitz’s Law of Mosaics, both from 2022, appear with works by the former NYCB resident choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and the post-Balanchine maverick William Forsythe on the program “Contemporary Choreography II.” —Apollinaire Scherr