Photo by Martha Swope, 1958. From Edward Villella's autobiography Prodigal Son: Dancing for Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magic "One day Balanchine stopped me and matter-of-factly told me that I was going to be the understudy for Todd Bolender in Agon. I thought this was terrible news. Agon was probably the single most complicated work in the history of classical dance up to then. I was still trying to adjust to the sounds of the music. It was the first time I had been ex

(25/50) Diana Adams in the 1958 CBS television taping of Nutcracker. 1-2. Diana Adams. Photos by Fred Fehl, 1958. Harry Ransom Center. 3....

(23/25) These are photos from rehearsals for the 1958 CBS TV taping of the Nutcracker. As you can see here, Mr. B played Drosselmeyer. In...

(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...

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

(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...

“Ever since I came to the United States I have liked watching parades and listening to Sousa’s marches. For many years in the back of my...

“Every ballet, I believe, is individual. It sets up its own world, its own society and mores; it has its own life. The approach,...

When you watch Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun in the audience, you become aware that the opening of the proscenium is actually the mirrored...

When Square Dance was choreographed in 1957, the cast included popular square dance caller, Elisha Keeler. The ballet featured his whitty...

[49/50] Suzy Pilarre recently reached out to me to share her history with the Nutcracker: "In 1958, at 10 I was brought to SAB by Melissa...

[46/50] “Little Miss Bethune, incidentally, gave up a good job in Broadway’s ‘The Most Happy Fella’ in order to appear as Clara. Her...

[20/50] Robert Maiorano, a former NYCB soloist was the first boy to play a soldier in Balanchine's Nutcracker in 1955 (before that it had...

“Once while performing The Cage, I did not fasten my sleek black beetle like wig securely, and by mid-dance it was hanging near my ear. I...

(1/4) The beauty of these photos gives me chills. Jerome Robbins working with two casts of dancers on Afternoon of a Faun in 1964. Edward...

Although Serenade’s meaning has been subject to endless speculation since it was created 87 years ago—Mr. B himself even giving...

Here are 5 of Balanchine’s Waltz Girls in the same arabesque. So interesting to see how the same choreography can still be so different....

(2/10) When Balanchine mounted his own one-act production of Swan Lake in 1951, New York Times critic John Martin was “bewildered” by the...

(3/10) “[Allegra’s potrayal] is poetic in the extreme and wonderfully musical […] Surely here is one of the loveliest of Odettes.”—John...

Another round of Summerspace tonight at NYCB. Here is silent footage of the premiere of Summerspace performed at the 11th American Dance...