Les Petits Riens

Les Petits Riens ("Little Nothings") is choreographed to a ballet score of the same name composed by Mozart in Paris for the French choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), ballet master of the Paris Opera. The ballet was created as part of New York City Ballet's contribution to the 1987 bicentennial commemoration of the great composer's death, during which all of his compositions were performed at Lincoln Center.

The original ballet was danced as an interlude during Niccolo Piccini's opera Le Finte Gemelle, and Mozart's connection with the work was little known and the score was only discovered in the library of the Paris Opera at the end of the nineteenth century. Martins' Les Petits Riens is a ballet for four couples; the costumes are by Barbara Matera and the lighting is by Mark Stanley.