Performance Dates
A VARIED COLLECTION DISPLAYING THE NUANCE OF BALANCHINE’S PRISMATIC IMAGINATION
A quartet of Balanchine works, both beloved and comparatively rare, are gathered on this program. From 1972, Stravinsky Violin Concerto remains one of Balanchine’s Black & White leotard ballet masterworks, rarely absent from the repertory for long. By contrast, his Haieff Divertimento, created in 1947, returned to the repertory after a quarter-century absence in 2020. The five-part ballet combines classical steps with elements of popular American dance styles. Valse Fantaisie is a brief but sprightly classical dance set to selections of the Russian composer Glinka’s music, and rounding out the program is the effervescent Donizetti Variations, with its nimble choreography suggesting the influence of the great 19th-century Danish choreographer August Bournonville.
Ballets on this Program
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Stravinsky Violin Concerto
The outer sections of Stravinsky Violin Concerto are carefully-woven masterpieces of symmetry that peel away to reveal two of Balanchine’s most ingenious and unique pas de deux.
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Haieff Divertimento
The silken precision of this Black & White ballet, set to a Alexei Haieff composition in equal parts vivacious and quietly nostalgic, makes this rarely performed work a delightful nod to the reputed Balanchine style.
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Valse Fantaisie
This brief but captivating ballet finds a principal couple and a corps de ballet of four women in a whirl of perpetual motion set to Glinka’s swooning melodies.
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Donizetti Variations
The cheerful 26-minute Donizetti Variations sets a series of effervescent dances to music from the opera Don Sebastien, offering choice but technically challenging roles for two bravura dancers and three supporting trios.
