(12/50) I love these two photos of Arthur Mitchell dancing Balanchine's 1954 choreography for Arabian/Coffee. He just looks so radiant...

(13/50) “Diana Adams as the Sugar Plum Fairy is a vision of beauty, The act opens, in this version, with her variations from the grand...

(10/50) “The original costumes with Karinska using her imagination…My costume was the most comfortable, wonderful costume because she had...

(11/50) “Jumping through that damn hoop at breakneck speed was not easy. I was trying to do it academically when Mr. B said, ‘Bobby, you...

(9/50) The skirt of the tutu [for Dewdrop] has taken on various lengths over the years, depending on the individual ballerina's physique....

(8/50) On the first night of Nutcracker in 1964, when the ballet and sets had been expanded to fit the massive proportions of the new New...

(7/50) The best thing you will see all day today is little baby Suzy Pilarre as a Polichinelle when she was 11 years old. The pictures...

(6/50) Violette Verdy as Dewdrop. Photo by Fred Fehl, 1962. Harry Ransom Center. From left to right down the line: Patricia Neary, Leslie...

(4/50) You may (or may not) know that Janet Reed danced lead Marzipan in 1954 when Balanchine's Nutcracker premiered...but she wasn't the...

(3/50) Jacques d'Amboise & Melissa Hayden in the Nutcracker Pas de Deux. Photo by Fred Fehl, 1962. Harry Ransom Center.

(2/50) The Sugar Plum Fairy, welcomes the Nutcracker Prince and Marie into the Land of Sweets in the original 1954 production of...

(1/50) It's here! It's here! It's Nutcracker season! Follow along as I post historical photos of George Balanchine's Nutcracker in tandem...

In 1929, Balanchine choreographed The Prodigal Son for the Ballets Russes. Serge Lifar danced the title role, and Felia Doubrovska danced...

Allegra on Episodes: "When Balanchine created the part in Episodes for me, this role was a continuation of his interest in the abstract...

Balanchine choreographed Theme and Variations for Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch in Ballet Theatre in 1947. "And what Balanchine did...

Speaking of the opening night performance in 1948, Anatole Chujoy wrote, "The thrill of the evening came with Balanchine's Symphony in C....

“Serenade is like a labyrinth Balanchine has constructed to guide us, gently, but with no recourse but to proceed.” —Toni Bentley in...

On October 11, 1948, New York City Ballet gave its first official performance at the City Center Theater. The program was all Balanchine....

On the opening night of Orpheus in 1947: “When the slight figure of Stravinsky appeared at the conductor’s sand he was given a tumultuous...

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