The following is a chapter from Merrill Ashley's autobiography Dancing for Balanchine . In this chapter she recalls the making of the...

Nicholas Magallanes and Patricia Wilde. Photo by Martha Swope, 1957. "Last night at the City Center the New York City Ballet presented its first new work, and the hitherto sluggish young season came to life with a bang. The work in question was George Balanchine's "Square Dance" and it is a gem. "The set is just a bare hall such as usually houses square dancing, and on a dais sits a band of fiddlers in shirt-sleeves. Below them is caller (a famous one he is, named Elisha C. K

Violette Verdy and Conrad Ludlow. Photo by Martha Swope, 1960s. "Though the New York City Ballet's season at the City Center closes...

On Balanchine’s Act II pas de Deux in Midsummer Nights Dream: “But brief as it was, the change from many dancers to just two gave a...

“La Valse may have been the quintessential role of LeClercq, not only for its angular sophistication and doomed half-innocence, which she...

Patricia McBride and Nicholas Magallanes in La Valse. Photo by Fred Fehl, 1963. In 1919, Diaghilev requested that Maurice Ravel compose...

Balanchine’s Sonatine premiered on the gala night of the Ravel Festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of the French composer’s birth....

Stephanie Saland. Photo by Paul Kolnik “In 1977, at the age of ninety, Karinska gave a magnificent farewell performance with her...

“'I have a bit of Vienna in my bloodstream,’ Mr. Balanchine said in an interview during a lighting rehearsal some days ago. ‘I’m from the...

"George Balanchine’s Vienna Waltzes was given for the first time this season, in one of its very best performances, Tuesday night by the...

Men (L-R): Nicolas Magallanes, Jonathan Watts, ? Women(L-R): ?, Diana Adams, Melissa Hayden, Jillana, ? On Balanchine’s Divertimento No....

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

"Light, airy, surprising, George Balanchine's new Ballo della Regina is not a great ballet. It is merely terrific. There is such a...

Merrill Ashley in Ballo della Regina. Photo by Martha Swope. “There was George Balanchine’s Ballo Della Regina, a 1978 work set to...

Peter Martins and Suzanne Farrell in Chaconne. Photo by Max Waldman. I’m so happy today begins NYCB’s Spring Season. Back to my daily...

Balanchine and Zorina on the set of "I Was an Adventuress" In 1940, during Balanchine’s “Hollywood Era” he choreographed a version of...

Photo by Steven Caras “To many of her students, Danilova represented the elegant past of ballet; she was a true ballerina. Darci Kistler,...

Rhonda Sampson, Sheniqua Nolan, Yvonne Hall, Roslyn Sampson, Joseph Wyatt, and Lydia Abarca [5/7] This week @dancetheatreofharlem ...

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

“In [the final] scene [of Firebird], the music swells to a glorious finish, but since there’s no movement, and all is still, it’s as if...