"A SERENADE IS A DANCE IN THE LIGHT OF THE MOON"

Serenade was my first ballet in the United States. Soon after my arrival in America, Lincoln Kirstein, Edward M. M. Warburg, and I opened the School of American Ballet in New York. As part of the school curriculum, I started an evening ballet class in stage technique, to give students some idea of how dancing on stage differs from classwork. Serenade evolved from the lessons I gave.

… Many people think there is a concealed story in the ballet. There is not. There are, simply, dancers in motion to a beautiful piece of music. The only story is the music's story, a serenade, a dance, if you like, in the light of the moon.

Because Tchaikovsky's score, though it was not composed for the ballet, has in its danceable four movements different qualities suggestive of different emotions and human situations, parts of the ballet seem to have a story: the apparently "pure" dance takes on a kind of plot. But this plot, inherent in the score, contains many stories-it is many things to many listeners to the music, and many things to many people who see the ballet.

Serenade has seen a number of different productions.

(From 101 Stories of the Great Ballets by George Balanchine & Francis Mason )

Concerto Barocco

Balanchine said of Concerto Barocco: "If the dance designer sees in the development of classical dancing a counterpart in the development of music and has studied them both, he will derive continual inspiration from great scores."

In the first movement of the ballet the two ballerinas personify violins, while a corps of eight women accompany them. In the second movement, a largo, the male dancer joins the leading woman in a pas de deux. In the concluding allegro section, the entire ensemble expresses the syncopation and rhythmic vitality of Bach's music.

This work began as an exercise by Balanchine for the School of American Ballet and was performed by American Ballet Caravan on its historic tour of South America and later entered the repertory of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. In 1951, Balanchine permanently eliminated the original costumes and dressed the dancers in practice clothes, probably the first appearance of what has come to be regarded as a signature Balanchine costume for contemporary works. On October 11, 1948, Concerto Barocco was one of three ballets on the program at New York City Ballet's first performance.

 Mozartiana

The first “Paris” version of the ballet Mozartiana to Tchaikovsky's Suite No 4 for Orchestra, of the same name, for which the composer adopted four short piano pieces by Mozart, was staged by George Balanchine in 1933 for his short-lived, Ballet 1933 Company. It was the first of Balanchine's ballets to music by Tchaikovsky. In his early Mozartiana, stylized in imitation of the eighteenth century, the choreographer used to only classical dance, but also some devices of the commedia dell'arte, as well as bright and colorful costumes by Christian Berard.

In 1981, Balanchine created a second version of the ballet. His new Mozartiana was a chamber and very intimate work, intended for the connoisseur of late twentieth century classical dance. For all its outer elegance and stylistic subtlety, it is openly spiritual. Mozartiana, after all, is 77-year old Balanchine's spiritual testament, like the Requiem was Mozart's and the 6th Symphony was Tchaikovsky's.

Both the stage and the characters in the ballet were dressed in mourning. The four little girls and four adult soloists wore black trimmed with white lace: an elegant XVIII th century costume (designer Ruben Ter-Arutunian). White, though, a symbol of eternity and perfection, could be seen through the upper black layer of the knee-long fluffy tutu of the Ballerina-Muse (a role created for Suzanne Farrell). Her partner wore a white shirt and tights with dark blue waistcoat. It is not known who the latter character is, he could be Mozart or perhaps even Balanchine (this could be why the choreographer gave this role to Ib Anderson, who apart from being short like himself, also had a similar emotional and musical make-up to his own). There is no chance factor in the world of Balanchine. In his late Mozartiana, he bidding farewell to those without whom his life and work would have been inconceivable  to composer, dancer, to the Ballerina-Muse.

Mysterious and plotless, like most of Balanchine's compositions, Mozartiana opens with a Prayer (Preghiera). This is followed by the solo (Jig) of the court dancer accompanied by four female soloists, variations and a most refined pas de deux by Ballerina and Leading dancer. This dialogue between Creator and Muse ends with a joyful and exultant finale in which all the characters take part.