Cocktail Party Fact: The composer, Igor Stravinsky, dedicated the music to Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. Agon a series of “unwinnable games . . . and ceremonial competitions between them.” There are four sections, each divided into three parts each for twelve dancers. The first section begins with four men, then four women are added, [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: This piece, performed each December, is the financial backbone of almost every ballet company. For some people, it’s the only dance they see all year.
Here’s the plot: On Christmas Eve, Clara’s Uncle Drosselmeyer gives her a Nutcracker. That night she dreams the Nutcracker defends her against an army of mice. She throws [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Limon and Company danced this ballet at the White House in 1967 for President and Mrs. Johnson. Limon was also married to Isadora Duncan.
Here’s the plot: Within the fabric of a formal Pavan, interrupted by private asides, the four principal characters of Shakespeare’s Othello - the Moor, Desdemona, Emilia, and Iago - [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Choreographer Kurt Jooss gained the attention of the world with this anti-war piece at the choreographic competition of the Archives Internationales de la Danse in Paris. The jury voted unanimously to give Jooss first place.
Here’s the plot: The scene opens with a group of bald-headed bureaucrats around a green table arguing. Helmeted [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Igor Stravinsky’s score is not only a masterpiece for the ballet, incorporating Russian folk times, but remains a constant piece in the orchestra repertoire of the world. A veritable masterpiece.
Here’s the plot: Based on motives from Russian fairy tales, it tells of Prince Ivan who captures the mysterious firebird. To gain her [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Some critics have been loathe to consider many of Alwin Nikolais’s pieces as dance works, since the props often fully cover the body of the dancers.
Here’s the plot: A dazzling fabric tent, capable of assuming many shapes, is ceremoniously erected by the dancers, and in the end plummets down on top of [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Composer Tchaikovsky lived to see only the first production of Swan Lake, which was generally considered to be a bomb. When he died in 1893, he missed by just two years the revival that carved a permanent place for the ballet in dance history.
Here’s the plot: Act I: It is Prince Siegfried’s [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: As opposed to most classical ballets, Summerspace attempts to build a horizontal rather than a vertical line of movement throughout.
Here’s the plot: The dancers are like winged insects in a summer landscape. The entire dance is a play with space and movement. It attempts to focus on continuous motion rather than beginnings [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: Which version do you prefer? Cranko, or MacMillan?
Here’s the plot: Essentially, the ballet sets special emphasis on the social conflict between two feuding families who are finally reconciled over the tomb of the star-crossed lovers.
Memorable Moments: The balcony scene appears to be the vehicle for all the ballerinas and their partners [...]

Cocktail Party Fact: On its opening night, Rodeo received 22 curtain calls. One critic called it “refreshing and as American as Mark Twain.”
Here’s the plot: A cowgirl tries to rope in the affections of the Head Wrangler on a Texas ranch. In order to win him, she tries to imitate the Cowhands, even attempting to [...]