Variations on a Sigh
A Conversation Between Daniel Ulbricht and David Gabriel
January 17, 2025
,Premiering in 1974, George Balanchine's Variations pour une Porte et un Soupir was immediately recognized for its experimental and avant garde qualities. Karin von Aroldingen and John Clifford originated the ballet's two roles, as the Door and the Sigh of the ballet's title, respectively, in correspondence with the two types of sounds heard in the Pierre Henry score. A seminal work in the musique concréte movement, it is composed entirely of the creaks and clacks doors make and noises characterized as sighs; Balanchine selected 14 movements from Henry's original 24, with titles like “Balance,” “Children’s Counting Rhyme,” “Snoring,” and “Death.” The stylized and Weimar-reminiscent costumes—von Aroldingen in black, white, and jewels, with a Louise Brooks-esque bob and ruby red lips; Clifford in a textured gray bodysuit with a shock of gray hair—contribute to the ballet's otherworldly quality which, on its stage debut, purportedly inspired bravos, boos, and even walk-outs. Lincoln Kirstein was decidedly pleased with this response, calling Variations "a tremendous and very frightening work."
For the dancers called to this relatively rarely-performed ballet, interpretation is just part of the challenge; the physical demands are many. As Soloist David Gabriel prepares to make his debut as the Sigh, we listened in on this conversation between him and Principal Dancer Daniel Ulbricht, who has performed in the role throughout his career with the company.
Conversation edited for length and clarity.
DANIEL ULBRICHT: It is a piece that doesn't get performed very often—I want to say it comes around once every five years or so. I think this is the third or fourth time I've done this role.
DAVID GABRIEL: I don't know much about the history of it, but I did see it once when I was in the School, with you and Sara [Mearns], I believe. So, I had this idea from the outside—it's such an abstract, avant garde piece. I remember being in awe of it. It's a pretty amazing ballet.
DANIEL: I do consider this to be very much an avant garde work, even in 2025. Balanchine was saying, “They're calling this my avant garde,” and that was in 1974. If anyone else was to try to do something like this, it would be considered novel.
We're so tied to the musical canon of our repertory at City Ballet, so the fact that you have something that lacks music and is really just sounds is, I think, the first thing that makes you reassess how you learn it. This is not in the catalog of works that we teach when you're a student.
DAVID: Usually the music is your guide; when I learn a ballet, I listen to the music and envision the steps. Balanchine is always musical in that way, so it's really easy to learn his ballets, because everything makes sense. And then you have this score, which is just completely random sounds. At first, when we were learning it, I was like, “How am I ever going to dance to this?” I just had to listen to it a lot and essentially memorize the sounds. I have landmarks that can help me understand where I am in the music—that makes it so much easier to be musical. I think when the audience sees things happening on these sounds, I think they'll understand—“Oh, this guy is a sigh, and she's a door.” So hopefully we'll time it perfectly.
DANIEL: The timing is quite exact. And the question is, how do you correlate exact timing with the lack of music? So it's really being conscious of sound and silence, and accents. You can get lost. Although, one could argue it's a theme and variations—everything is always introduced. The Sigh goes, the Door goes, there are moments where they kind of come together, then they separate again; they have their own identities. Even scenically, there's a spotlight on the Door, then it moves to a spotlight on the Sigh. I think Balanchine was quite clever in that sense—“Let me shift my focus to where I want you to go, and then see choreographically or musically or sound-wise, what I need that person or that dancer to embody.”
DAVID: It's really interesting, because the costumes aren't like a door and a sigh; you can't really be so literal with it. I see it as these alien-like creatures that are meeting for the first time, and the way they interact with each other is very curious. They're exploring each other. It's really more of a conversation than like a pas de deux. It's very much up for the audience’s interpretation. But after being in it, it really does feel like these two characters are curious about each other.
DANIEL: At one point, John [Clifford] said the imagery was like you're in a “virtual nightmare.” I thought that was an interesting way of saying that. And looking at some other readings, they’ve said that the Sigh is like a fallen angel. It parallels the dynamic of Prodigal Son, where the Sigh tends to be smaller than the Door, like the Prodigal Son to the Siren, and they’re often danced by the same ballerina. So you can always, I think, find parallels.
I remember when Karin [von Aroldingen] was still alive, to be learning or hearing stories from her was really beautiful. I think that's really what you have to look at as a dancer, at a company like this—you're going to have your own experience, but what information can I pass on that will help the next generation do that? With masterpieces, it's like the Stanley Cup. You get to hold it, but you don't get to keep it. And with other ballets—Tschai[kovsky] Pas [de Deux], Prodigal, Tarantella, Midsummer, decades of dancers have performed them; the more obscure, the less you see that. So there is this kind of rarefied company you get to be included in. It's special to have you, David, come in and become another person to keep that life going. Because if we don't do these ballets, they’re not able to live through to the next generation.
DAVID: It’s a super niche ballet. There are only a handful of dancers that have actually gotten to dance it. Originally it was John Clifford and Victor Castelli, and we've been watching a video of Tom Gold for reference. I know Tom Gold personally, so it's cool that I have that connection. But he did it for many years after John and Victor, and learned it from them, and then you learned it from Tom. It's a legacy of dancers that have been doing this role—it's really cool to become a part of that.
I saw you do it, it was really incredible. You were so daring, and you really go for everything; with such a physical role, it's really amazing to watch that. It's really cool to be part of this chain of dancers.
DANIEL: I'm very fortunate in that my background before I danced was in martial arts and gymnastics, so I was never afraid to fall. And I think that was a really important takeaway from those practices, besides the discipline and the art itself. So I can trust my body. I think as an audience member, what I want to see is someone trust their body. I want to not be afraid watching them.
DAVID: I also have a background in gymnastics, and somewhat in martial arts—I did it when I was young, but yeah, it does definitely help. There are a lot of gymnastic-esque movements in this ballet, a lot of rolling, and having prior knowledge of those techniques is really helpful. It's a little aggressive. Even though I'm falling and trying to be gentle with my body, I definitely have gotten a lot of bruises.
DANIEL: I joked around with one of my colleagues the other day that if I had to do a barre as a warm up for the kind of repertory I've done historically with the company, it wouldn't start the way we do every day, it'd probably be more physical training and how to fall, and these other things that aren't necessarily associated with my regular morning routine.
DANIEL: The rest of it has just been exploring how my body can work as I've aged a little bit since I've performed this role. How do I get my full range of movement? Do I go about it in a different way? Am I accenting something else, like a moment where there's a little handstand, where that might be scary for someone else? That's in my wheelhouse. Somebody else might have more flexibility where that comes across, somebody else might have a more dramatic effect. So that's, I think, the beauty of it. It kind of makes you go on all cylinders of your artistic game.
DAVID: It is pretty challenging. There's a lot of falling and sort of… flailing. You have to really loosen up. I often feel like ballet is so compact, and this character is really wild and free. It's a Sigh, so you're trying to think, “What would the embodiment of a breath be?” I think that it's really loose and airy, and it goes with the score in that it's a lot of these breathing sounds, so you have to imagine yourself as a wisp of air.
DANIEL: You're really trying to find a way to occupy time and hold the stage, sometimes in silence, and that's the hardest thing, I think, for any performer to do. When you're younger, you need steps to do that; when you’re more experienced, I think you understand that you can hold yourself in a way that still keeps the attention on you. That's something I've learned as a dancer, getting older. The ballet doesn't change, but you change. I'm very excited to revisit this, and I don't know what that turn or pivot was, but I'm trying to explore it more and see what other things, within the context of the steps, I can make happen in the moment and make alive within something so obscure.
My advice for you is to trust the instinct. You’re such a talented dancer and a really studied individual. I love your quality of movement, so I think it'll be a great thing, and definitely outside of the box—especially with the other things that you’re rehearsing right now. That's the beauty, right? Every dancer wants to be able to have these sides to their artistic spectrum and then stretch themselves. As long as you're curious and your instrument allows you to, go for it. I think that's what's fulfilling for a dancer.
DAVID: I’m typically perceived as a very classical, technical dancer, so I do a lot of the more classical ballets, but I have an appreciation and love for abstract work, so this is definitely something I'm interested in. I was kind of surprised to be cast, it's such a rare treasure of a ballet! I was really excited to learn it. After getting into the studio, this feels like something I can do, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm super excited.
Rehearsal photos by Ella Spruill © New York City Ballet