Seldom-Performed Balanchine Ballets
These 29 ballets are either listed on the Balanchine Trust website or have been performed since 1995. Sixteen of them have not been performed since 2009 and 13 others have been rarely performed since 2009.
The structure and sources of the entries are as follows:
Each ballet’s listing begins with its name and the year it was created.
Composer and music, according to the Balanchine Catalogue
Number of required dancers and duration according to the ballet’s page on the Balanchine Trust or by our estimate
A description of the ballet from Trust and Foundation websites; and contemporary reviews from newspaper websites and as quoted in Nancy Reynold’s Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet
Contemporary reviews from newspaper websites and as quoted in Nancy Reynold’s Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet
Indicia of the ballet’s ability to be staged. “Trust” with link: the ballet is listed on the Balanchine Trust website. “1993 Celebration:” one of the 73 ballets included in New York City Ballet’s 1993 Balanchine Celebration. “NYPLPA:” video of the ballet is available at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “Foundation archival video:” video of original cast dancers coaching dancers available at NYPLPA and 75 other libraries around the world. Availability of commercial or YouTube videos is noted. “Benesh” and “Labanotation:” the ballet is notated in one of those movement recording systems
Ballet companies performing the ballet and year performed
Additional information can be obtained by searching for the ballet on the Balanchine Foundation Catalogue
À la Françaix 1951
Jean Françaix, Serenade for Small Orchestra, 1934
3 dancers, 15 minutes
A tennis-playing athlete flirts with a pretty girl until a ballerina dressed as a winged sylph appears and fascinates him; in the end the sylph, stripping down to a bathing suit, reveals herself to be an athlete too.
Alastair Macaulay: “this whimsical story is told with clarity, charm, wit — and just enough seriousness… And there’s just enough humor.” Walter Terry: “Tasty indeed…a little joking game, as the music to which it is set.” John Martin: “Quite delicious.” Nik Krevitsky: “A choreographic bon-bon.” Doris Hering: “merely a sketch.”
Trust, NYPLPA, Labanotation
Eglevsky Ballet 2010, Carolina Ballet 2013
Ballade 1980
Gabriel Fauré, Ballade for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 19, 1881
12 dancers, 13 minutes
A series of pas de deux and solos for a ballerina and her cavalier, accompanied at times by a corps of 10 women.
Anna Kisselgoff: “the beauty of the ballet is its dramatic aura of wafting impermanence.”
Trust, 1993 Celebration, NYPLPA
NYCB 2003, Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2007
Clarinade 1964
Morton Gould, Derivations for Clarinet and Jazz Band, 1954-55, composed for Benny Goodman
23 dancers
P.W. Manchester: “might have served as a filler.” Allen Hughes: “to see what is there, you have to look past the short polka-dot skirts jiggling on hips, and that isn’t easy.”
Trust, NYPLPA
Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2008, pas de deux only
Concertino 1952
Jean Françaix, Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, 1932
3 dancers, 12 minutes
Two ballerinas, costumed as can-can dancers in black tutus, keep the male dancer, formally dressed, in close company throughout; they permit him but one brief solo variation.
John Martins: “the merest wisp of a pas de trois.” Walter Terry: “because it is unpretentious, does not offend.”
Trust, NYPLPA
Cotillon 1932
Emmanuel Chabrier, Dix Pièces Pittoresques, 1880
~25 dancers
Choreographed for the “baby ballerinas” of Ballets Russe de Monte-Carlo. Amid the program of festivities at a cotillion, Fate appears in the guise of a vampire wearing black gloves. A Young Girl telling fortunes is rebuffed by the Mistress of Ceremonies and runs off, but reappears to lead the Grand Rond in which she pirouettes around the ballroom by herself, until the guests join her spinning and the curtain falls.
Reconstructed by Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer for Joffrey Ballet 1988, Oakland Ballet 1995
Diana and Actaeon Pas de Deux 1968
Cesare Pugni
2 dancers
Museum of Television & Radio Ed Sullivan Show
Miami City Ballet 2011
Divertimento Brillante (from Glinkiana) 1967
Mikhail Glinka based on themes from Bellini’s La Sonnambula, 1832
2 dancers, 7 minutes
Clive Barnes: “a glittering showpiece pas de deux.” Marcia Marks: “gracious, balanced, completely unforced.”
Trust, NYPLPA
Formed Glinkianna with Polka, Valse Fantaisie, and Jota Aragonese
Vail International Dance Festival 2016
Don Quixote 1965
Nicolas Nabokov, NYCB commission
79 dancers, 125 minutes
The ballet depicts episodes in the hero’s search for perfection, and for his ideal woman, Dulcinea, who appears as a housemaid, shepherdess, the Virgin Mary, and in other guises. Balanchine performed the role of Don Quixote on several occasions.
Walter Terry: “it isn’t very good ballet.” Mary Campbell: “less than exciting.” Allen Hughes: “a success.” Edwin Denby: “a sumptuous spectacle.” Clive Barnes: “immeasurably touching quality.” Claudia Cassidy: “a big, lavish, adventurous work.”
Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2005, National Ballet of Canada 2007
Élégie 1982
Igor Stravinsky, Élégie-Elegy for solo viola, 1944
1 dancer, 4 minutes
At the opening and closing of this work the dancer kneels in a circle of light on the darkened stage.
Anna Kisselgoff: “effective within its own self-imposed limits.”
Vail International Dance Festival 2016
Glinka Pas de Trois 1955
Mikhail Glinka, Ballet music from Ruslan and Ludmilla, 1842
3 dancers, 12 minutes
The dancers need great speed and split-second timing as they execute a wide variety of technical feats.
Robert Sabin: “A model of what such a piece should be…ever-musical.” P.W. Manchester: “A beauty...glittering virtuoso display…perfectly arranged.”
Trust, 1993 Celebration, NYPLPA, Labanotation
American Ballet Theatre 1997, Oakland Ballet 2003, Carolina Ballet 2012, Miami City Ballet 2018
Gounod Symphony 1958
Charles Gounod, Symphony No. 1 in D major, 1855
32 dancers, 25 minutes
The focus of the ballet lies with its corps of 10 men and 20 women, which constantly shifts into a variety of geometric patterns and spirals.
Manchester: “A pretty bagatelle.” John Martin: “a delight to watch if only for Balanchine’s endlessly rich and essentially exquisite invention.” Alastair Macaulay: “grandly formal and politely fragrant, but it, too, often catches the breath with dazzling geometric effects.”
Violette Verdy: “The ballet is like the gardens of Versailles. It has everything we admire there – regularity, invention, diversity, perspectives. It’s one of Balanchine’s great masterpieces, but went unnoticed, because, like so many things of his, it doesn’t spoon-feed you with easy steps, already digested. He asks you to look.”
Nancy Reynolds: “This is one of the ballets, along with Roma and Bayou, whose early demise is especially regretted by Kirstein.”
Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2016
Harlequinade Pas de Deux 1952
Riccardo Drigo, Les Millions d'Arlequin, Act I, 1900
2 dancers, 15 minutes
Trust, NYPLPA, Museum of Television & Radio Bell Telephone Hour
John Martin: “lacking in urgency” and the music “pretty close to the bottom of the barrel.” Walter Terry: “a balletic trifle.”
San Francisco Ballet 2006
Hungarian Gypsy Airs 1981
Sophie Menter, Hungarische Zigeuner Weisen, orchestrated by Tchaikovsky
10 dancers, 14 minutes
Jennifer Dunning: “a sort of extended pas de deux for two principals and an ensemble of four men and women. They fling their heels, cross their feet, fold their arms, slap the backs of their heads and glide across the floor with gypsy passion in familiar folk-accented dance, scraps of scarlet fluttering behind them. Solos, duets and group dances succeed each other in a smooth-flowing whole, set with classical elegance. The form and look are familiar, again, and the mood trifling.”
Trust, NYPLPA
La Chatte 1927
Henri Sauguet, 1927, commissioned by Serge Diaghilev
8 dancers
Deserting his male companions, a young man in love with a cat persuades Aphrodite to change the cat into a beautiful girl. Tempted by the goddess, the girl gives chase to a mouse, and is turned into a cat again; the boy dies broken hearted. The cast of seven men and one woman danced around and through transparent Constructivist forms against a black background.
Reconstruction by Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer for Teatro dell' Opera di Roma 2009
Le Bal 1929
Vittorio Rieti, 1928, commissioned by Serge Diaghilev
~35 dancers
In the midst of a ball a Young Man seeks out a Lady accompanied by an Astrologer and begs her to remove her mask; she complies, and to his horror reveals the face of an old woman; he flees, she pursues him, and he hides. After the ball the Young Man is alone in the ballroom. The Lady returns with the Astrologer, unmasks, but then pulls off her face, which is only a second mask--and is revealed as a young and beautiful woman. The Astrologer, too, unmasks and appears as a handsome youth; he embraces the Lady and they depart, as the Young Man falls swooning.
Known for inventive costumes by Giorgio de Chirico.
Reconstruction by Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer for Teatro dell' Opera di Roma 2005
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme 1979
Richard Strauss, Concert Suite, ~1917
24 dancers, 31 minutes
The romantic adventures–and comic misadventures–of Cléonte, Molière’s 17th century dancing master, provide the impetus for this elaborately costumed ballet set in a fashionable Parisian mansion.
Choreographed for Rudolf Nureyev, co-choreographed by Jerome Robbins and perhaps Peter Martins.
Anna Kisselgoff: “frolicsome ballet is too slight to become a repertory staple … the work is essentially a divertissement that pretends to have an outline of a plot.”
Trust, 1993 Celebration, NYPLPA
Paris Opera Ballet 1979, Zurich Ballet 1980
Meditation 1963
Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, Meditation, Op. 42, no. 1, from Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher, three pieces for piano and violin, 1878, orchestrated by Glazounov
2 dancers, 8 minutes
On a darkened stage, a solitary, troubled young man enters and kneels. He is approached by a young woman who seeks to comfort him. They dance together and embrace; in the end she departs, and he is alone again.
George Freedley: “an exquisite study in mood.” Miles Kastendieck “a tender pas de deux.” Douglas Watt “dripping.” P.W. Manchester “syrupy.” Alexander Bland “trite.”
Trust, NYPLPA, Museum of Television & Radio U.S.A. Dance
Ballet du XXe Siecl 1973, Suzanne Farrell Stages the Masters of 20th-Century Ballet 1999
Metastaseis & Pithoprakta 1968
Iannis Xenakis, Metastaseis, 1953-54; Pithoprakta, 1955-56
42 dancers, 8 minutes
In Metastaseis the dancers, in white, form a mass in the shape of a giant wheel that moves and changes, ending as it began. In Pithoprakta, the two leading dancers, dressed in white and gold, perform a pas de deux during which they simulate partnering but seldom touch; the corps is in black.
Manchester: “one of the most awe-inspiring theatrical conceptions I can remember.” Alastair Macaulay on Pithoprakta: “Immediately you saw the theatrical originality with which Balanchine would respond to musical modernism.”
NYPLPA
Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2011
Minkus Pas de Trois 1951
Léon Minkus, from Paquita, 1881
3 dancers, 8 minutes
A tour de force for its three dancers as its demanding choreography poses a nonstop test of technique and virtuosity.
Walter Terry: “wonderful.” Anatole Chujoy: “spectacular.”
Trust, 1993 Celebration, available by permission at NYPLPA, Foundation archival video, You Tube, Labanotation
Carolina Ballet 2012
Pas de Dix 1955
Alexander Glazounov, Raymonda, excerpts from Act III, Op. 57, produced 1898. Uses much of the same music as Cortège Hongrois.
10 dancers, 20 minutes
Composed of solos, two pas de deux, a duet for two women, and a quartet for four men, concluding with bravura measures for the ballerina.
John Martin: “Tallchief’s variation is one of the best Balanchine has ever made.” P.W. Manchester: “not top-drawer Balanchine.” Japan Times: “never pokes its tongue all the way through its cheek, but which comes mighty near it.” Alastair Macaulay: “You can’t miss the speed and audacious off-balance risks with which Balanchine treats the ‘Raymonda’ dances, the glitter of the women’s footwork, the thrusting cleanness of the dancers’ line.”
Trust, NYPLPA, New York City Ballet in Montreal, Vol 2, Foundation archival videos, YouTube
Kansas City Ballet 2007, Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2013
Pulcinella 1972
Igor Stravinsky, Pulcinella: Ballet with Song in One Act after Pergolesi, 1919-20
Co-choreographed with Jerome Robbins
54 dancers, 37 minutes
The ballet combines the traditional Italian commedia dell’arte figure with aspects of Goethe’s Faust character. Beginning with Pulcinella’s funeral procession, the ballet depicts his resurrection through a pact with the devil, his continued career of mockery, petty crime, and debauchery, his defeat of the devil at a spaghetti feast, and a celebration of his victory by dancing.
Clive Barnes “nervy and boisterous.” Deborah Jowitt: “a great sloppy, bawdy concoction.” Paul Gellen “wildly disorganized.”
Ragtime (II) 1966
Igor Stravinsky, Ragtime for Eleven Instruments, 1918
2 dancers
Doris Hering: “a trifle.” Clive Barnes: “banal.”
Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2008
Renard 1947
Igor Stravinsky, Le Renard, 1915-16
4 dancers
More of a mimed show with a fox, rooster, cat, and ram; only given five times
John Martin: “destined to be unpopular, and yet of greatest interest.” Anatole Chujoy: “for children.” Walter Terry: “a minor Sunday school pageant.”
Foundation Archival Video, NYPLPA
Kansas City Ballet 2004
Sylvia Pas de Deux 1950
Léo Delibes, Sylvia, ou la Nymphe de Diane, 1876
2 dancers, 13 minutes
Grand pas de deux, with entree, adagio, two solos, and a coda
Beloved by Maria Tallchief and André Eglevsky; very positive reviews by Doris Hering and Walter Terry
Trust, Foundation archival video, NYPLPA, Kultur, Foundation archival video, YouTube
Pacific Northwest Ballet 1987, Miami City Ballet 1988, Cuban National Ballet ~2008, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre 2011, a 2020 performance by NYCB was cancelled owing to the COVID shutdown
Symphonie Concertante 1947
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphonie Concertante in E-flat for violin, viola, and orchestra, K. 364, 1779
25 dancers, 29 minutes
The two principal ballerina roles correspond to the solo instruments; one suggesting the violin part and the other, the viola. Balanchine noted that the ballerinas “do not represent the instruments in any literal sense; their dances are simply accompanied by the instruments. The ballerinas leave the stage when the violin and viola are silent, returning when the instruments are heard again.”
John Martin: “boring.” Robert Sabin: “brittle and empty academicism.” Walter Terry: “marvelous, elegant…refreshing.” B.H. Haggin: “wonderful.”
Trust, 1993 Celebration, NYPLPA, Labanotation, Benesh
American Ballet Theatre 2018
Tzigane 1975
Maurice Ravel, 1924
10 dancers, 9 minutes
This choreographic fantasy on gypsy dance styles begins with the sound of a plaintive violin that signals the beginning of the ballerina’s five-minute solo. At its end, she is joined by her partner and four couples.
Noel Gillespie: “visual kitsch and virtuoso turns.” Arlene Croce: “Farrell’s dancing is a seamless flow.” Robert Garis: “exciting not only for the rapidity and range of its choices of position and direction and balance, but for its rapid and sensitive changes of tone and level of intensity, from directly passionate and rhapsodic to the wittily self-mocking and then on to open joking.” Deborah Jowitt: “like an elegant drawing of an awkward child.”
Royal Ballet 2008, Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2017
Valse Fantaisie 1953 Version
Mikhail Glinka, Valse Fantaisie in B minor, 1839; orchestrated 1856
4 dancers
The same music was rechoreographed as one part of Glinkiana, but this version was also kept in repertoire.
Robert Sabin: “charming.” John Martin: “perpetuum mobile, dainty, lilting, fleet, and studded with brilliance.”
1993 Celebration, NYPLPA
Hartford Ballet 1998, Miami City Ballet 2010, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre 2011
Valse Triste 1922
Jean Sibelius, Valse Triste from incidental music for Kuolema, Op. 44, 1903
1 dancer
NYPLPA
Reconstruction by Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer for Finnish National Ballet 2004
Variations for Orchestra 1982
Igor Stravinsky, Variations in Memory of Aldous Huxley, 1965
1 dancer
NYPLPA, Dance in America
Balanchine’s final ballet
Suzanne Farrell Ballet 2003
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