NYCB Vol. 10 No. 16 - Symphonie Concertante

Feb 11, 2024

1 min read

Updated: Feb 14, 2024

I am delighted to share these photos with you that I recently found in the Library of Congress digital archive in the Larry Colwell photographic collection. I’ll never have a good reason to share them because this ballet isn’t performed anymore (to my knowledge). So I'm sharing them today just because they are beautiful. These photos show 22-year-old Maria Tallchief and 18-year-old Tanaquil LeClercq with Todd Bolender in Balanchine’s 1947 ballet Symphonie Concertante. The ballet was considered a triumph of technique but theatrically boring. At the end of this post I've included a clip Maria speaking about this ballet.