André Eglevsky and Maria Tallchief. Photo by Radford Bascome, 1954 “The chief novelty of the occasion was the first performance by Diana...

Maria Tallchief and Francisco Moncion. Photo by Martha Swope. New York Public Library “It was Maria Tallchief’s performance in...

Philip Johnson: "The New York State Theater was designed with Classicism in mind. When I began to plan the ballet theater in the 1950s, I...

(41/50) Edward Bigelow, the original Mother Ginger in 1954 and the Polichinelles. Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1954. LIFE Magazine Archive.

(40/50) “At the time, the ballet was rehearsed by Janet Reed; she was wonderful. She made everything so clear and so much fun at the same...

(37/50) Maria Tallchief on the preparation for the first Nutcracker: “As usual, he created the pas de deux for André and me with a...

(29/50) These pictures were taken almost 70 years ago but they look like that could have been taken yesterday! Not much has changed in...

(22/50) Herbert Bliss, original Hot Chocolate lead Photos by Radford Bascome, 1954. NYPL.

(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...

(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...

(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...

(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...

(1/2) ‘On Your Toes' (1936) was the first musical Balanchine choreographed in the United States. It broke ground in numerous ways—for the...

Balanchine’s Western Symphony was choreographed with 4 movements—Allegro, Adagio, Scherzo, and Rondo—but Balanchine cut the 3rd movement...

Three Balanchine Duets* Part 2 *commissioned for the Vail Dance Festival This week, Vail’s International Evenings of Dance performances...

Baryshnikov dancing the 2nd solo in Robbins’ Fancy Free. Photo by Martha Swope, 1979 Video from “Dance in America” dir. Emile Ardolino, 1981

It’s been a whole year since I started curating dance history photos and stories to share with an Instagram audience. What began with my...

[28/50] This is Part 1 of a 3-part post for our 3-show day. These posts share Maria Tallchief's experience with the Grand Pas de Deux...