Congratulations to the dancers of NYCB! Today is the closing performance of the 2022-23 season which makes this the 170th post I’ve made...

One of my favorite stories that Suzanne tells is how her partnership with Jacques began before she met him. You can listen to her tell it...

“Her Odette manages to be both a ballerina’s holiday and a poetic and appealing work of art. In the quality of her movement she has...

The most unreal photos you've ever seen of Afternoon of a Faun. (In my opinion...) These photos began as 1-inch by 1-inch proofs with red...

Kyra Nichols on the kiss at the end of the ballet: “You don’t really touch your face, you just reach up and feel the heat of the kiss on...

[26/50] A journal entry from Jacques d'Amboise, December 11, 1954: "Karinska told me a friend asked her what she had put in the costumes...

[11/50] Jacques was in Hollywood shooting Seven Brides for Seven Brothers when Balanchine choreographed the Nutcracker in 1954. He...

Jacques d’Amboise was the definitive interpreter of the role Apollo from 1951-1968. In a 2016 interview for the Balanchine Foundation,...

The ballet Episodes was originally a collaboration between Balanchine and Martha Graham. She choreographed the first section and...

On Scotch Symphony Allegra Kent said, "There were theories—I was too sylphlike, not sylphlike enough; I was really a sylph, I was a girl...

Balanchine's Scotch Symphony was not expected to last long in the repertory. The scenery and music create an ambiance that is nearly...

(3/12) In 1966, Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was filmed on a soundstage to preserve most elements of the original production....

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

(1/12) Twelve performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins today! These first two posts feature photos from the original production...

(6/6) “I think Apollo is the best role for a male dancer that has ever been choreographed, and I think it has more in it than any dancer...

(5/6) In his 1936 autobiography, (affiliate link) Stravinsky wrote of the original 1928 decor and costumes for Apollo: “I did not see eye...

(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...

(1/6) “Ballet began when Terpsichore touched Apollo’s finger, as on the Sistine ceiling God touches Adam’s, and inspired a pas de deux in...

(4/4) Today is for the men of Afternoon of a Faun. Eddie Villella shared in his autobiography: “I learned that I had actually been...

(10/10) Lincoln Kirstein told New York Times in 1986, “Our Swan Lake has never been traditional, anyway. Balanchine created it as an...