George Balanchine`s ballets: Serenade. Apollo. Symphony in C (Classical Ballet)

World premiere: 1 March 1935, American Ballet, Adelphi Theatre, New York
Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 30 April 1998, St Petersburg

Running time 35 minutes

"Serenade, set to Tchaikovsky’s almost unnaturally tuneful Serenade for Strings, holds a special place among the dance works of the twentieth century: both masterpiece and talisman, it is probably the most widely performed work by the century’s greatest master, George Balanchine. Certainly it is the piece which is most closely associated with his name. It is performed today by countless companies across America and Europe, and is the «signature piece» of the New York City Ballet. It is also of importance that it formed part of Balanchine’s first programme in America, so that it is associated in the public mind with Balanchine’s development, in America, of that particular New World neo-classicism on which his reputation rests.
Cynics may insist that the popularity of Serenade amongst dance companies is due to its technical accessibility, and amongst audiences because, as Balanchine himself said and Serenade asserts in movement, «ballet is woman». The motion and costumes are graceful and palatable even to the most conservative of contemporary audiences. It is Modernism without the tears: in other words, if this is neo-classicism, there is no need to worry.
Yet if Serenade is still drenched in the Romanticism that some of Balanchine’s later works to Stravinsky’s music evade, it is nonetheless beautiful, its dancing symbiotic with the music. Serenade is a very rare creation indeed: an inaccessible masterpiece, at once profound and trivial, manipulative and beautiful. This is why it will continue to be performed as long as classical ballet itself is alive."

Yulia Yakovleva

Apollo.

Music by Igor Stravinsky
Choreography by George Balanchine (1928)
Libretto by Igor Stravinsky

Staging by Francia Russell
Original lighting design by Ronald Bates
Lighting: Vladimir Lukasevich

Apollo, the son of Zeus and Leto, achieves stunning levels of brilliance in dance and citherplaying. He is followed in his sequence of dance by his ever-present companions the three muses – Calliope (the muse of epic poetry), Polyhymnia (the muse of sacred hymns) and Terpsichore (the muse of dance). When Apollo, accompanied by his muses, appears on Mount Olympus everything around him falls silent in adoration of his divine art.

“I regard Apollo as a turning point in my life. In terms of discipline, restraint, the perpetual unison of sound and mood this score was a revelation for me. It seemed to be telling me that I didn’t have to use it all, that I could leave something out. In Apollo and all of the composer’s subsequent music it is impossible to imagine any one given extract to be an extract from another score. Each of them is unique, nothing can be replaced. I examined my own work in the light of that lesson.
It was when studying Apollo that I first understood that the gestures, like tones in music and shades in painting, find certain ‘native ties’ between themselves. Like any group they are subject to their own special laws. And the more solid the artist the more clearly he will understand and consider these laws. Starting with Apollo I developed my choreography along these lines, dictated by these mutual ties.
“Apollo has sometimes been criticised for its ‘lack of theatricality.’ It may be true that there is no vividly expressed story there (although there is a plotline that runs throughout). But its technique is that of classical ballet which in every sense is theatrical, and it is here that we see the start of the literal transformation of sound into visual movement.”

George Balanchine. The Dance Element in Stravinsky’s Music

World premiere: 12 June 1928, Les Ballets Russes de Serge de Diaghilev, Thйвtre Sarah Bernhart, Paris
Premiere of last revived version at the Mariinsky Theatre: 30 April 1998

Running time 33 minutes

Symphony in C

Music by Georges Bizet (Symphony No. 1 in C)
Choreography by George Balanchine (1947)

Staging by Colleen Neary
Costume design by Irina Press

World premiere: 28 July 1947, Thйвtre National de l'Opйra, Paris
Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 9 February 1996

Running time: 40 minutes