Performance Dates
Refinement and Style Meet in Four Canonical Balanchine and Robbins Works
An enticingly varied program comprises essential works from the Company’s founding choreographers. The program opens with Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, the rare ballet he composed to a work by Mozart and a glittering display of pure classicism that has remained a favorite of both audiences and dancers. From Robbins comes his bewitching pas de deux Afternoon of a Faun, considered one of his greatest achievements despite its simplicity, followed by two more by Balanchine: Le Tombeau de Couperin, a neoclassical ballet steeped in elegance and courtly refinement, and The Four Temperaments, an exemplar of the neoclassical style Balanchine defined with his Black & White ballets.
Ballets on this Program
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Divertimento No. 15
Balanchine considered Mozart’s Divertimento No. 15 the finest ever written and to compliment the sparkling score, he created a work of prodigious ingenuity featuring a regal cast of dancers.
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Afternoon of a Faun
Subtle, sensual, and narcissistic, Afternoon of a Faun depicts a chance encounter between two young dancers in a studio.
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Le Tombeau de Couperin
Rooted in the court dances of 18th-century France, Le Tombeau de Couperin mesmerizes with its seamless patterns and symmetrical groupings of dancers.
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The Four Temperaments
A ballet with unceasing appeal, The Four Temperaments references the medieval concept of psychological humors through its classically grounded but definitively modern movement.
