Edwin Denby, the poet and dance critic wrote the following about Balanchine’s ‘Ballet Imperial’ [Now Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 2] as it was performed at the New Opera in 1943. The accompanying pictures, however, show the 1963 revival for Suzanne Farrell and Jacques d’Amboise.
“Actually you see a stage full of dancers who, say, arbitrarily disappear, who reappear in peculiarly rigid formations that instantly dissolve, or else stop and stand immobile. You see the vivacity of the star set over sharply against the grand pose of the ensemble, or else the solo dancer lost and still while the full company hastens happily. You watch the solo partners discover each other, two individuals in the noncommittal cheerful society of the company; you follow their touching individual response. And afterward you see them alter their natures from having been tender personages to being star performers, an inexplicable duplicity that leads to no heartbreak but culminates instead in the general dazzle of a virtuoso finale for everybody all over the stage at once. So described, Ballet Imperial might be a typical Petersburg ballet. But the fact is that each of these typical effects is arrived at by so novel a technical procedure that it comes as a surprise […]
“Balanchine has an extraordinary gift for bringing performers to life on their own personal terms, so that the unconscious grace that is in each one of them can shine out in the work they do, giving it the momentary and mortal expression of beauty. The plan of a choreography is a great pleasure. But it is the brilliancy of young dancers entirely in the present, the unique liveliness of each dancer caught entirely in the present instant that at once, we all know it, will be past and irretrievable forever-it is this clear sharp sense of our own natural way of living that makes a moment of ballet speak to the complete consciousness that makes choreography look beautiful. As Balanchine’s has again and again.”
—Edwin Denby, January, 1943
Photos of Suzanne Farrell & Jacques d'Amboise in Ballet Imperial by Fred Fehl.
Harry Ransom Center
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