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Giselle falls for a young man she believes to be a fellow villager, unaware that he is a nobleman with another life. When the deception is revealed, their story passes into a supernatural realm ruled by the Wilis. Adolphe Adam’s score accompanies a ballet about betrayal, devotion, and mercy.
At a Christmas celebration, a young girl receives a wooden nutcracker from the mysterious Drosselmeyer. As night falls, the familiar room becomes a place of battles, transformation, and wonder. Set to Tchaikovsky’s score, the ballet travels from a family party into an enchanted world of snow and sweets.
The fairy Carabosse curses Princess Aurora, but the Lilac Fairy softens the spell into a sleep lasting a hundred years. A prince’s journey offers the possibility of an awakening. Tchaikovsky and Petipa’s fairytale ballet brings together courtly celebration, opposing magical powers, and a story of enduring hope.
A ballet created for students of the School of American Ballet, set to Johann Sebastian Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 772–801.
A Fairy Tale or A Magic Tale (Un Conte de fées), a ballet fantastique, was a ballet in one act choreographed by Marius Petipa to music by (?) Richter. The ballet was first presented as an examination piece by students of the Imperial Ballet School on April 4/16 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1891, in the theatre of the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg, Russia. Anna Pavlova participated in this ballet when she was ten years old during her first year as a student at the Imperial Ballet School. It was the first ballet she ever danced in at the Mariinsky Theatre. (Her last performance at the Mariinsky would be as Nikiya in La Bayadère in 1914.)
Birthe flirts with Mogens while her betrothed Ove remains behind near an elf-hill. Enchanted by elf maidens, Ove is rescued by Hilda, who discovers she is a human changeling raised among trolls. After Hilda and Ove reunite, Mogens marries Birthe, revealed to be the troll child, and Hilda and Ove celebrate their wedding.
A Marriage During the Regency (Un Mariage sous la Régence, Брак во времена регентства) is a ballet in 2 acts, with libretto and choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Cesare Pugni. The ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on December 18/30 (Julian/Gregorian calendar dates), 1858, at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Principal dancers: Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa (as the Countess Matilda) and Christian Johansson (as the Count), Timofei Stukolkin, Marfa Muravyova, Anna Prikhunova, and Lev Ivanov. In 1870 Marius Petipa restaged this ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre.
The first act follows Shakespeare's familiar story of lovers and fairies. The second act is a classical wedding celebration, omitting Shakespeare's play-within-a-play finale.
At a Russian country house in 1850, Natalia falls for Belaiev, her son's young tutor. A series of relationships and pas de deux lead to Belaiev's departure after the household discovers their embraces. Natalia despairs, but Belaiev returns unseen to leave her the rose she gave him.
Melissa Barak’s ballet to Benjamin Britten’s 1934 Simple Symphony for string orchestra, inspired by Balanchine’s La source and Raymonda Variations. Barak also designed the women’s costumes.
A Suite of Dances is a ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites. The ballet was created for Mikhail Baryshnikov and premiered on March 3, 1994, at the New York State Theater.
A couturier despairs when his work is disliked and kills himself with a pair of scissors. The ballet drew inspiration from the story of chef François Vatel, who died by suicide after a delayed fish delivery for a royal banquet.
In this five-scene ballet based on the Faust legend, a female devil persuades Faust to trade his soul for sexual fulfillment and renewed youth. After Faust falls in love with Marguerite, he tears up the contract; both die as a result.
Adagio Hammerklavier is a ballet choreographed by Hans van Manen to the Adagio from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29, Hammerklavier. The ballet is plotless and danced by three couples. Van Manen made Adagio Hammerklavier for the Dutch National Ballet, and it premiered on 4 October 1973, at the Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam.
The ballet is an allegory of the cycle of man’s life; the world in which he lives is represented by a stage on which a ballet is being created: Adam is cast as the principal dancer, Omnipotence is represented by the Stage Director and Adam’s Fates by the Designer, Wardrobe Mistress and Dresser. Adam falls in love, marries, and achieves power, but his triumph is brief; his world crumbles about him, he is stripped of his glory, and a new generation (Understudy) takes his place. He seeks distraction in dissipation but everyone deserts him and he is left alone to face Death.
A 'space age quintet' ballet set to John Adams's 1994 Violin Concerto. The concerto's third movement had previously been performed as the separate ballet X-Ray.
Adolescence (Prelude and Song) was an early modern dance solo choreographed by Martha Graham to music by Paul Hindemith. It premiered on March 2, 1929, at the Booth Theatre in New York City. The all-solo program included two other new works, Danza and Resurrection, and eight previously performed pieces: Dance, Immigrant, Valses Sentimentales, Four Insincerities, Tanagra, Two Variations from Sonatina, Fragilité and Fragments. Seattle's Week Town Crier described the work as depicting youth, "curious, yearning, fearful, swept away by strange visions and dreams. A very difficult, complex thing made sweepingly beautiful by its utter simplicity and sincerity." Dance Magazines reviewer called the solo "delicate and sensitive." The New York Times critic wrote, "The dancer has achieved an exquisite result. Simple and stark in design, it is at the same time warm and tender in mood, childishly frank and yet deft and penetrating. It is the happiest use Miss Graham has yet made of her economy of movement, and perhaps the least inclined in the direction of ugliness."
A ballet set to Ravel's orchestration of Valses nobles et sentimentales, an eight-waltz suite.
After the Rain is a ballet choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon on New York City Ballet to music of Arvo Pärt, including Tabula Rasa (first movement, Ludus) and Spiegel im Spiegel. The ballet premiered on January 22, 2005, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center. The final pas de deux is commonly performed separately from the remainder of the ballet.
Afternoon of a Faun is a neoclassical ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. The ballet features two young dancers meeting at a rehearsal studio. Robbins was influenced by Stéphane Mallarmé's poem L'après-midi d'un faune, the inspiration for Debussy's score, as well as Vaslav Nijinsky's 1912 ballet to the same score, and his own observation of dancers. The ballet was made for the New York City Ballet, and premiered on May 14, 1953, at the City Center of Music and Drama, with the two roles of the ballet originated by Tanaquil Le Clercq and Francisco Moncion. Afternoon of a Faun has since been performed by various other ballet companies.
A faun/dancer capers and bathes within three pools of light that appear successively at center, left and right stage. The setting differs from Nijinsky's version and uses similar costuming.
Agon is a 25-minute ballet for twelve dancers, with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by George Balanchine. It was recognized as a landmark at its premiere and has continued to be regarded as such ever since. The score was commissioned by the New York City Ballet. Stravinsky began composition in December 1953 but was interrupted the next year; he resumed work in 1956 and concluded on April 27, 1957. The music was premiered in Los Angeles at UCLA's Royce Hall on June 17, 1957, conducted by Robert Craft. Stravinsky himself conducted the sessions for the work's first recording the following day. Agon was first performed on stage by the City Ballet at the City Center of Music and Drama on November 27, 1957. The composition's long gestation period covers an interesting juncture in Stravinsky's composing career, in which he moved from a diatonic musical idiom to one based on twelve-tone technique; the score thus demonstrates a unique symbiosis of musical idioms. The work's title, agon, is a Greek word that means “contest," “protagonist," “anguish” or “struggle." The ballet has no story, but consists of a series of dance movements in which various groups of dancers interact in pairs, trios, quartets, etc. A number of the movements are based on 17th-century French court dances – saraband, galliard and bransle. Agon was immediately hailed as a groundbreaking triumph. John Martin in The New York Times described the choreography as "complex, ingenious and fantastically off the beaten path formally," and the music as "a marvelous piece of consistent construction." Edwin Denby, writing a short while after the premiere, reported that the work had been "given an enormous ovation last winter by the opening-night audience. The balcony stood up shouting and whistling when the choreographer took his bow. Downstairs, people came out into the lobby, their eyes bright as if the piece had been champagne. Marcel Duchamp, the painter, said he felt the way he had after the opening of Le Sacre. At later performances, Agon continued to be vehemently applauded." Alastair Macaulay, in a Times article marking the premiere's 50th anniversary, characterized the work as "astounding, full of shapes, phrases, rhythms, sounds that hadn't been encountered before but embodied New York modernism itself.... Arlene Croce, later dance critic of The New Yorker, said she did not sleep for a week." During the years since it was introduced, Agon has remained in the City Ballet repertoire, has been performed all over the world, and is regularly described using language such as "an instant classic," "Balanchine's 1957 masterpiece," and "one of the greatest of Balanchine's achievements."
Alice's parents are holding a garden party. She is very upset to see her friend Jack, the gardener's boy, dismissed by her mother on a false charge of stealing a jam tart. Lewis Carroll, a friend of the family, is present and to console her he offers to take her photograph. Alice is surprised to see him emerge from his camera cloth as a White Rabbit and when he disappears into his camera bag she follows him and falls down into Wonderland. She sees a magical garden which she cannot enter because all the doors are locked. Jack appears, transformed into the Knave of Hearts, and accused by the Queen of Hearts of stealing a tray of tarts. He is fleeing from her, her guards and the White Rabbit. Alice tries to follow but the door closes before her. She is too big to get through the only unlocked door. She is given a bottle and when she drinks from it she becomes too small to reach the door handle. She then successively becomes very large and so small that she can swim, together with various animals, in a lake formed by her tears. After this, she arranges a race to dry them off. The White Rabbit then leads her further into Wonderland, where she is given a piece of paper inviting a Duchess to attend the Queen of Hearts' croquet party. Alice carries the invitation into a cottage, where she finds the Duchess nursing a baby while a cook makes sausages. The duchess is delighted at the invitation, while the cook is resentful, and the atmosphere becomes violent apart from an interval when a mysterious Cheshire Cat appears. Alice tries to protect the baby, but it turns into a pig and the Duchess takes it to be turned into sausages. The White Rabbit reappears, and then the Knave, who is carrying the tarts and pursued by the Queen's guards. The White Rabbit conceals them and then has to go to the garden party. Alice wants to go with him but the White Rabbit and Knave agree that it is too dangerous for her to be in the presence of the bad-tempered Queen and blindfold her to stop her. Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for directions where to go, but his instructions are vague and confusing. She then finds herself at the tea party of a Mad Hatter, a March Hare and a Dormouse. She escapes and then finds herself alone and lost, but her spirits are lifted by a caterpillar perched on a mushroom, who gives her a piece of mushroom. She eats the mushroom and the doors and walls disappear so that at last she is able to enter the magic garden. The Knave appears, still pursued by the Queen and her guards, and he escapes, followed by the White Rabbit and Alice. Alice is in the Queen's garden, and she finds the gardeners painting the roses red, as they have mistakenly planted white ones even though the Queen detests them. The Queen arrives, together with the King, the Duchess and the cook. The gardeners have not finished painting the roses and the Queen orders their execution. Alice and the White Rabbit smuggle the gardeners away while the executioner is distracted by the seductive cook. The Queen shows off her skill at dancing, after which she plays croquet with the Duchess. Flamingos are the mallets and hedgehogs the balls. The knave has taken a great risk to be with Alice and they are reunited. The Duchess is much better than the Queen at croquet, who resorts to cheating. The Duchess challenges the Queen, who orders her execution, but Alice helps the Duchess to escape while the King calms the Queen down. The Knave is again reunited with Alice but he is caught and the Queen orders him to be taken to the castle to stand trial. The Cheshire Cat reappears and Alice follows the Knave to the castle. At the trial, the witnesses accuse the Knave. The King insists that the Knave is heard in his own defence, but this produces little effect and so Alice intervenes, and together they win over everyone but the Queen, who seizes an axe to carry out the execution herself. The knave and Alice try to escape with the help of the White Rabbit and the witnesses, but the Queen finds them. Unable to escape, Alice pushes over a witness, who falls on someone else and starts a chain reaction of all the court falling over. They are only playing cards. Alice wakes up.
Allegro Brillante is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3. The ballet is danced by a principal couple and a corps de ballet of eight. Balanchine said it "contains everything I knew about classical ballet." Allegro Brillante was made for the New York City Ballet, and premiered on March 1, 1956, at the City Center of Music and Drama, with Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes originating the two principal roles.
American Document is a modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham in response to rising Fascism in 1930s Europe. The piece premiered on August 6, 1938 at the Vermont State Armory in Bennington, Vermont. The ballet features spoken word excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and Emancipation Proclamation, among other texts. The set was created by Arch Lauterer; the costumes were designed by Edythe Gilfond. The original music was written by Ray Green. Graham extensively reworked the choreography in 1989. John Corigliano's Oboe Concerto replaced Green's music for the revised version.
American Lyric was a modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham to music of Alex North with costumes by Edythe Gilfond. The piece premiered on December 26, 1937, at the Guild Theatre in New York City. The ballet was subtitled Dance of Assembly. In some programs, the work also included the statement, "This dance has as its theme the basic American right—freedom of assembly." Graham choreographed the piece for soloist (herself) and ensemble. The original group consisted of Anita Alvarez, Thelma Babitz, Ethel Butler, Jane Dudley, Nelle Fisher, Nina Fonaroff, Natalie Harris, Marie Marchowsky, Sophie Maslow and Marjorie Mazia. Although the dance did not remain in Graham Company repertory, American Lyric is noted as an important milestone in the career of the composer. At the time, Alex North became very friendly with Graham and her musical director, the composer Louis Horst. The dance was hailed for its anti-war, anti-Fascist theme, however, the choreography reportedly did not reflect this facet of the ballet. Left-wing critic Blanche Evan saw "no substantive difference in Graham's relation to social realities." In an article for The New Masses titled Her Chosen Theme, Evan wrote, "This dance has as its theme the basic American right - freedom of assembly - so reads the program note. But again, the movement symbols employed in the dance are not symbols expressive of the theme. They are movements from the composer's predetermined category of pure 'kinesthetic,' detached and abstract and intellectually unsatisfied." Today, American Lyric is categorized as part of Graham's Americana period, a phase that includes American Document (1938), American Provincials (1934), Frontier (1935), Panorama (1935), Horizons (1936), El Penitente (1940), Letter to the World (1940), Salem Shore (1943) and Appalachian Spring (1944). The ballet meshes with Graham's stated goal to create a "uniquely American" dance form, to help "bring forth an art as powerful as the country itself."
An American in Paris is a one-act ballet choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, to the eponymous music by George Gershwin, costumes designed by Holly Hynes, sets designed by Adrianne Lobel and lighting designed by Natasha Katz. The ballet premiered on May 4, 2005, at the New York State Theater. Wheeldon later directed and choreographed the musical adaptation of the An American in Paris film.
In the 1967 one-act ballet, Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, is confined in a Berlin mental institution and struggles to recover her memory. The 1971 expansion adds two acts depicting her life—or remembered image of it—before the Russian Revolution.
Andantino, originally titled Pas de Deux, is a ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. The ballet was made for the New York City Ballet's Tchaikovsky Festival, and premiered on June 4, 1981, at the New York State Theater, originated by Darci Kistler and Ib Andersen.
Boris Eifman’s ballet adaptation of Tolstoy’s novel, choreographed to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
A New York City Ballet work by Jerome Robbins set to an orchestration of Debussy's Six épigraphes antiques—six short pieces originally for piano four hands—and his unaccompanied flute melody Syrinx.
Apollo (originally Apollon musagète and variously known as Apollo musagetes, Apolo Musageta, and Apollo, Leader of the Muses) is a neoclassical ballet in two tableaux composed between 1927 and 1928 by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed in 1928 by twenty-four-year-old George Balanchine, with the composer contributing the libretto. The scenery and costumes were designed by André Bauchant, with new costumes by Coco Chanel in 1929. The scenery was executed by Alexander Shervashidze, with costumes under the direction of Mme. A. Youkine. The American patron of the arts Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge had commissioned the ballet in 1927 for a festival of contemporary music to be held the following year at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The story centres on Apollo, the Greek god of music, who is visited by three Muses: Terpsichore, muse of dance and song; Polyhymnia, muse of mime; and Calliope, muse of poetry. The ballet takes Classical antiquity as its subject, though its plot suggests a contemporary situation. It is concerned with the reinvention of tradition, since its inspiration is Baroque, Classical, or even post-baroque/rococo/galant. It is scored for chamber orchestra of 34 string instruments (8.8.6.8.4).
A New York City Ballet Diamond Project work made to excerpts from Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor's Appalachia Waltz.
Appalachian Spring is an American ballet created by the choreographer Martha Graham and the composer Aaron Copland, later arranged as an orchestral work. Commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Copland composed the ballet music for Graham; the original choreography was by Graham, with costumes by Edythe Gilfond and sets by Isamu Noguchi. The ballet was well received at the 1944 premiere, earning Copland the Pulitzer Prize for Music during its 1945 United States tour. The orchestral suite composed in 1945 was played that year by many symphony orchestras; the suite is among Copland's best-known works, and the ballet remains essential in the Martha Graham Dance Company repertoire. Graham was known for creating the "Graham technique" of dance; in the 1930s, she began commissioning scores from various composers, often related to American history and culture. Around the same time, Copland incorporated relatable and accessible musical characteristics of the Americana style to increase his music's appeal to the general public; he first implemented this in earlier ballets like Billy the Kid and Rodeo. The initial scenario for Appalachian Spring devised by Graham was revised many times by both her and Copland; the title characters' names were changed numerous times and other characters from the early revisions were cut in the final production. Originally orchestrated for a thirteen-piece chamber orchestra, the score was arranged into various suites by Copland for different purposes; the original ballet featured eight episodes, three of which were cut in the well-known orchestral suite. The ballet takes place in a small Appalachian settlement in 19th-century Pennsylvania. There are four main characters: the Bride, the Husbandman, the Pioneer Woman, and the Revivalist; the last is accompanied by four Followers. Appalachian Spring follows the Bride and the Husbandman as they get married and celebrate with the community. Themes of war are present throughout the story; it is suggested that the Husbandman leaves for war, causing worry and anxiety among the community. Shaker themes also influenced the ballet, notably in the music, where Copland incorporated a theme and variations on the common Shaker tune "Simple Gifts".
One Thousand and One Nights (sometimes referred to as Arabian Nights) Arabian Nights is a two-part ballet written in 1979. The music of the ballet was written by Fikret Amirov, and the libretto was written by Magsud and Rustam Ibrahimbeyov based on the fairy tale " Arabian Nights”. The premiere of the ballet took place in 1979 at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. Captivating melodies, colorful harmonic language and orchestration, the alternation of sincere lyrical scenes with folk scenes and household scenes are the main features of the Arabian Nights ballet. Expressing very complex and deep ideas through dance is the greatest achievement of the composer in this genre.
A ballet set to Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments.
Aschenbrödel (Cinderella) is a ballet written by Johann Strauss II. He had written all the principal parts of the ballet, and was intending to fill in the orchestration as time permitted. However, he died in 1899, and it was finished by composer Josef Bayer in 1900.
A ballet choreographed by Peter Martins to Michael Torke’s 1991 composition Ash; it was the fourth collaboration between the choreographer and composer.
A live multimedia ballet with a specially commissioned rock score, composed and performed by Crome Syrcus, alongside film projections.
A ballet adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel, choreographed by Cathy Marston to a score by Laura Rossi. Michael Levine designed the sets and Bregje Van Balen the costumes.
Diana, tormented by the chastity imposed on her, rejects the bow her companions give her and goes alone into the forest to hunt; her companions fall asleep.
Babak succeeds the dying rebel Javidan and leads resistance against the Abbasid Caliphate and local feudal lords for more than twenty-two years. Betrayed by Afshin, he is captured and executed, while his legend endures.
Bacchanale was an ensemble work created by Martha Graham to music by Wallingford Riegger. It premiered on February 2, 1931, at the Craig Theatre in New York City. The work was danced by Martha Graham and Group, the forerunner of the Martha Graham Dance Company. Troupe members, all female, were Lillian Shapiro, Mary Rivoire, Dorothy Bird, Sydney Brenner, Louise Creston, Ailes Gilmour, Mattie Haim, Lily Mehlman, Sophie Maslow, Pauline Nelson, May O'Donnell, Lillian Ray, Ethel Rudy, Gertrude Shurr, Anna Sokolov and Joan Woodruff. The work was also known as Bacchanale No. 2., and was presented with that title beginning June 2, 1932, at a performance in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Information on much of Graham's work from the 1920s and 1930s, including Bacchanale, has been lost. Writing generally about her work of the period, Stark Young of The New Republic noted, "Her dancing is pictorial necessarily, since one understands it through the eyes. It is not pictorial in the sense of being representative, but pictorial as is an abstract painting, or a pattern in design."
Bacchus and Ariadne (Bacchus et Ariane), Op. 43 is a ballet score by the French composer Albert Roussel written in 1930. A late work, the piece reflects Roussel's distinctive orchestration style and his preference for late classical rhythms and harmonies. Its composition roughly coincides with that of Roussel's Symphony No. 3. It describes the abduction of Ariadne by Dionysus. The Paris Opera premiered the two-act work under the direction of Philippe Gaubert on 22 May 1931, with choreography by Serge Lifar and sets by Giorgio de Chirico.
A ballet by Eliot Feld set to Paul Lansky’s “Idle Chatter Junior.”
A five-and-a-half-hour court spectacle inspired by Circe in the Odyssey, combining poetry, music, design, and dance. Circe represents civil conflict, while the ballet’s ending presents the restoration of peace.
Ambrosio is a respected member of the community who attends a grand fiesta with Karime, but a mysterious woman in white captures his attention. The program notes describe his shift from superficial pleasures toward recognizing what matters, even at the cost of losing everything; the story is loosely based on Mexican folklore.
The Ballet Royal de la Nuit (Royal Ballet of the Night), Ballet Royal de la Nuict in its original spelling and often referred to simply as the Ballet de la Nuit, is a ballet de cour with a libretto by Isaac de Benserade and music by Jean de Cambefort, Jean-Baptiste Boësset, Michel Lambert and possibly others, which premiered on February 23, 1653, at the Salle du Petit-Bourbon in Paris. It took 13 hours to perform and included the debut of the fourteen-year-old Louis XIV as Apollo, the Sun King (Le Roi Soleil).
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