This footage is from a 1970 TV Special “Ballet with Edward Villella” and shows he and Patricia McBride rehearsing Tschaikovksy Pas de...

Happy birthday SPAC! On this day in 1966, Saratoga Performing Arts Center held its inaugural performance. NYCB performed “A Midsummer...

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon and Titania are King and Queen of the fairies. Balanchine was very specific in his use of stage...

Patricia McBride: “The woman is strong, but she’s very feminine and the male is the powerhouse. We had such passion together dancing it,...

After being away from NYCB for a decade, working on various Broadway shows, Jerome Robbins returned home to the company after he received...

Dances at a Gathering opens with a solo for the Brown Boy who was originally danced by Edward Villella . Eddie wrote about this solo in...

(50/50) We've made it! Congratulation to the dancers, musicians, artistic staff, backstage staff, and front of house staff for...

(27/50) Patricia McBride and Edward Villella in the Nutcracker Pas de Deux. This was filmed in the August of 1969 at Jacob's Pillow. Stay...

(20/50) "In 1958, Balanchine removed the grand pas de deux, substituting for it a dance for the Sugar Plum Fairy supported not by a...

(18/50) A very young Gelsey Kirkland as an angel, a party child, and a Polichinelle! (top Upstage center. Fred Fehl, 1963. Upstage, last...

“In Apollo’s second variation, Balanchine hit on a startling image to convey that the god is conscious of his divinity. Twice Apollo...

Balanchine choreographed Tarantella in 1964 for Edward Villella and Patricia McBride. “The dancers in Tarantella are also specific...

Eddie and Patti dancing Rubies in 1968. Footage is from the film “Man Who Dances: Edward Villella”. You can find the whole thing on...

Edward Villella as Prince Siegfried in Balanchine's Swan Lake. Photos by Martha Swope, 1959. New York Public Library

[43/50] We are nearing the finale of this Nutcracker season! Edward Villella and Patricia McBride in the finale. Martha Swope, 1968.

I found photos of Eddie and Violette performing Tschai Pas at Jacob's Pillow in 1963. As it turns out, Eddie tells an anecdote about this...

Raymonda Variations has been described as, “an adorable confection, concocted of marzipan, diamond, youth, and nostalgia” in “candy floss...

(10/12) From everything I’ve read over the years, it seems clear that Balanchine never passed up an opportunity to dance. He would often...

(8/12) The Oberon variation has been described by dancers as one of the fastest and most difficult male variations that Balanchine...

(6/12) Oberon, King of the Fairies Eddie Villella, who originated the role spoke of the experience in his autobiography: “It was simply a...