New York City Ballet’s Spring 2018 “All Balanchine” program includes Apollo, Le Tombeau de Couperin, Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, & Symphony in Three Movements at The David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center from April 25 – 29, 2018.
All Balanchine Ballets
Apollo
https://youtu.be/brXYtiP2X-4
Apollo (1928) was Balanchine’s first collaboration with Stravinsky. This was the beginning of neoclassical ballet. It made Balanchine famous when Apollo was premiered by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris.
Apollo is the Greek and Roman god of music. In the ballet, the young god approaches adulthood through the influences of the muses of poetry, theatre and dance.
The original set and costumes were created by French painter André Bauchant. Coco Chanel designed new costumes in 1929. Over the years, Balanchine stripped away most of the set and costumes.
The famous pose where the three muses and Apollo merge into one figure is sublime.
Le Tombeau de Couperin
This ballet set to music by Maurice Ravel is based on 18th-century French court dances.
Ravel composed the music in 1919 in memory of friends who died in World War I. Balanchine choreographed the music for NYCB’s Ravel Festival in 1975.
Eight couples make two quadrilles and dance geometric forms like a kaleidoscope.
Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
https://youtu.be/NsL1639qGUY
Tschaikovsky composed this music for Bolshoi prima Anna Sobeshchanskaya in his 1877 Swan Lake. It wasn’t part of the printed score and so was lost. Petipa replaced the missing music with some music from Act I which is now the famous Black Swan pas de deux.
When the original was rediscovered, Balanchine got permission to choreograph it in 1960.
Symphony in Three Movements
https://youtu.be/VovUnWWZZnY
Stravinsky wrote the music in 1945. Balanchine choreographed it for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival.
All Balanchine Performances
- Wednesday, April 25 at 7:30 pm
- Friday, April 27 at 8 pm
- Sunday, April 29 at 3 pm
All Balanchine Tickets
Box Office
Monday: 10 am – 7:30 pm
Tuesday – Saturday: 10 am – 8:30 pm
Sunday: 11:30 am – 7:30 pm
Phone
Center Charge: (212) 496-0600
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Visiting the David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023
(Columbus Ave at 63rd)
Subway
- (1) to 66th St – Lincoln Center
- (A) (C) or (B) (D) to 59th St – Columbus Circle
Bus
M5, M7, M10, M66, and M104
Car
There are entrances to Lincoln Center’s Parking Garage on Amsterdam Ave, 62nd St, and 65th St.