Approaching, on June 10th, is the 90th anniversary of the first performance of Serenade—Balanchine’s first creation on American soil. To commemorate the occasion I’ve prepared a week of posts with rare and some never-before-seen photos of Serenade throughout its long history. Paired with the photos will be eloquent reflections from dance writers on this masterwork. The first that I share is that of Edwin Denby, writing about Serenade around its 10th anniversary in 1944:
“Serenade is a kind of graduation exercise: The dancers seem to perform all the feats they have learned, both passages of dancing and passages of mime. There is no story, though there seems to be a girl who meets a boy; he comes on with another girl an for a while all three are together; then at the end, the first girl is left alone and given a sort of tragic apotheosis.
“George Balanchine is the greatest choreographer of our time. He is Petipa’s heir. His style is classical: grand without being impressive, clear without being strict. It is humane because it is based on the patterns the human body makes when it dances; it is not—like romantic choreography—based on patterns the human body cannot quite force itself into. His dance evolutions and figures are luminous in their spacing, and of a miraculous musicality in their impetus. Sentiment, fancy and wit give them warmth an immediacy. But as the audience actually watches, it all looks so playful and light, so unemphatic and delicate, it doesn’t seem to call for noisy applause. Ten years later, when noisier successes have faded, one finds with surprise that his have kept intact their first freshness and their natural bloom.”
—Edwin Denby, 1944
Photos of Kay Mazzo by Martha Swope
New York Public Library
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