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

On The Four Temperaments: “When, in the opening statements of the ballet—the first part of the Theme—we see a girl, supported on her...

(30/50) Sara Leland, Carol Sumner & Suki Schorer in Marzipan. Photo by Fred Fehl, 1960. Harry Ransom Center

(2/12) Here are additional photos from the original 1962 production. When Balanchine was a child, he was an elf in a production of...

(3/6) Balanchine on the idea that his ballets are abstract: “No piece of music, no dance can in itself be abstract. You hear a physical...

Tonight we begin again where it all began: Serenade, Balanchine’s first work in America (1934). With tonight’s performance of Serenade,...