Allegra Kent was 11 years old when she first experienced an evening at the ballet (1948). The third ballet on the program was La...

Bourrée Fantasque was choreographed by Balanchine in 1949 and was described by Nancy Reynolds (affiliate link) as, “melodious, colorful,...

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...

"Miss Kent's performance was certainly one of the highlights of the evening. It is poetic in the extreme and wonderfully musical. Its...

"Tchaikovsky enjoyed the rehearsals for Swan Lake which began at the Bolshoi. He wrote to his brother, 'If you only knew how funny it is...

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

"The three hallmarks of the American classic style are poetry, athleticism, and musicality, and these three graces are exquisitely...

“The leading dancer of the work follows the piano in the cadenza, but her cavalier also has his important part, as do the supporting...

Maria Tallchief on Allegro Brillante: “The ballet captivated me. The business of being lifted into the air in my flowing chiffon skirt...

[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...

The New York City Ballet's debut season in the fall of 1948 (held at New York City Center) was somewhat of an experiment. The first...

"The thrill of the evening came with Balanchine's Symphony in C. With no story to restrain its kinetic form or to hinder its...

The original Sleepwalker in La Sonnambula, Alexandra Danilova, recalled learning this ballet in her autobiography Choura: “I was the...

“I don’t see why some people are so shocked by ‘The Cage’. If you observe closely you must realize that it is actually not more than the...

Tallchief recalls that Balanchine and Stravinsky worked “side by side in the rehearsal studio. Ordinarily, when George was...

The original principal couple in Balanchine’s La Valse (1951) was Tanaquil LeClercq and Nicholas Magallanes. The day after the premiere...