Norwegian Moods

This pas de deux, choreographed by Lew Christensen, was first performed by San Francisco Ballet in 1976 as Four Norwegian Moods, in celebration of Christensen’s 25-year anniversary as artistic director of that company. The ballet had its NYCB premiere as Norwegian Moods at the 1982 Stravinsky Centennial Celebration. The ballet’s score, Igor Stravinsky’s Four Norwegian Moods for Orchestra, was written in 1941 and intended for a film (which never materialized) about Norway during World War II. Christensen was one of George Balanchine’s first leading male dancers in his first company, the American Ballet, and choreographed his first ballet, Filling Station, for Ballet Caravan in 1938.

9 minutes