Program
Balanchine + Ratmansky II
MAY 19, 20 eve, 21, 26, 28
Approximately 1 hr 32 min
Performance Dates
CLASSICAL BRILLIANCE MEETS CUTTING-EDGE IN A PROGRAM OF OSCILLATING EMOTION
Balanchine’s distillation of Swan Lake into a single-act ballet was inspired by Lev Ivanov’s choreography for the original lakeside second act, including the luminous pas de deux between the mysterious swan at the center of the plot and her smitten swain. The ballet is also notable for its flock of black swans, a striking departure from the traditional white. Composer Mussorgsky’s most famous piano composition, Pictures at an Exhibition, became the basis for Alexei Ratmansky’s fourth ballet for the Company, a suite of dances that embrace the music’s changes in tenor and tempo as it moves between light and dark passages.
Ballets on this Program
-
Pictures at an Exhibition
Like the ever-changing Wassily Kandinsky watercolors that set the stage, Pictures at an Exhibition’s ten dancers move in varying combinations to display a plethora of emotion, from raw and wild to solemn and soulful.
-
Swan Lake (Balanchine)
Distilling the classic story ballet Swan Lake into a drama-packed one-act work, Balanchine expertly depicts the rapture, heartache, and woe of two doomed lovers and the evil that thwarts their romance.
