To be performed by New York City Ballet:
Feb. 27, 28, & Mar. 1 evenings, & Mar. 2 matinee
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Serenade is the first ballet that Balanchine created for American dancers on American soil. It began, in 1934, as a lesson on technique with students from his School of American Ballet. This was a formative period in the building of Balanchine's company, so the students he had to work with led to many unique configurations of dancers. He also integrated unexpected events into the choreography, for instance, one girl arriving late for class and another dancer falling. Over time, the number of dancers changed and the costumes changed (the final version features long blue costumes against the blue background). At one point, Balanchine re-inserted a repeat of the music that he had originally removed. Then in the 1970s, he decided the three girls in the final movement should wear their hair down and loose. But the choreography remains pure and Serenade is considered a cornerstone of the Balanchine repertoire.

As a child, I owned a record of the music – Tchaikovsky's "Serenade in C for String Orchestra" – and once choreographed my own ballet to the music's "Russian Dance."

Serenade has four movements in all: Sonatina, Waltz, Russian Dance, and Elegy. I have fond memories of dancing the Dark Angel, one of three ballerinas in the final movement. One of the images that inspired Balanchine for this more "yearning" part of the ballet is a sculpture by Antonio Canova, in which Cupid brings his dying love Psyche back to life with a kiss.

This role, called the Dark Angel, was actually my very first solo. The company was on summer tour at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival in 1962 when Jillana sustained an injury. I had only 72 hours to learn the part and only one chance to perform it, on the last day of the festival. The schedule did not allow me a rehearsal with all the other 26 swirling bodies running in intricate patterns. Even though Mr. Balanchine would not be there to see me, I rehearsed it around the clock, working on it backward and forward, choosing places in the music to determine where I’d be at that exact moment.

After the performance, I wrote in my diary: "I was so nervous I could hardly put my make-up on... Once I got out there it was really heaven, even more so with Diana [Adams] dancing with me... At the end of my first entrance Diana said, 'Very good, Suzanne'." Click on the picture to see up close the Ravinia program I saved in my scrapbook. I wrote a few more notes in there and underlined all of the ballets I performed that week.

I've since staged Serenade for my own company and others, and thrill that a new generation of dancers will know this wonderful ballet. I love watching their eyes light up when they see for the first time how all of Balanchine's elaborate elements come together and take on life and meaning.

To be performed by New York City Ballet:
Feb. 29 & Mar. 2 evenings, & Mar. 1 matinee
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Balanchine commissioned Stravinsky to write the score for Agon, which he composed between 1953 and 1956. They worked very closely together, creating the choreography and the music in concert with one another. (I love this photo of the two of them – they’re so intense!)

In an interview I did with Bomb Magazine a few years ago, in the Fall 2003 issue, I reflected on their frequent collaborations: "Stravinsky was a great mentor and friend," I said, "and Balanchine wanted people to appreciate him. Some people had a problem with Agon. They thought the music sounded too harsh. The choreography doesn't try to modify or mollify the music - it justifies its harshness, it explains the music."

I went on to say, "Stravinsky and George loved discussing the difference between time and timing. Timing can be slowed down or speeded up as an image on a movie screen, but time and our life goes on - the universal clock. It will always be a 24-hour day. Stravinsky and George loved pointing out the importance of time." And that's why it was always exciting to perform their ballets - no one could break down time musically the way Stravinsky did - and no one could break it down in movement like Balanchine. Even the silences have timing and life in them.

Agon, which premiered in 1957, is a very athletic work, small but epic. The word is Greek for "contest," though there's no literal sense of competition in the ballet. There is a sense of contrast, however, among the fanfares played before each of the three sections. These interludes feature identical music, but Balanchine has phrased them differently. And then there's a conquest of various energies in the three main sections, first with two women and a man, then two men and a woman, and finally one woman and one man.

This pas de deux was originally made on Diana Adams and Arthur Mitchell. I learned the role by watching Diana perform it and she coached me before I first danced it with Arthur. For ballets that I didn't originate myself, I’m grateful to have learned many of them this way, by observing their creators directly. It helped me absorb key musicality phrases in order to remain as true as possible to Balanchine's original vision. This is the way I continue to teach these ballets today.

I have staged the pas de deux and also the full ballet many times, including in St. Petersburg with the Kirov Ballet. The year was 1999, and I didn't want the world to go into the new millennium without the Russians having performed Agon - a labor of love between two of Russia's most brilliant native sons!

To be performed by New York City Ballet:
Feb. 27, 28, & Mar. 1 evenings, & Mar. 2 matinee
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Symphony in C was on the program the first time I ever saw Balanchine’s company perform. I was 14 and NYCB toured to Bloomington, Indiana. After watching the program, it was clear to me that everyone in a Balanchine ballet dances – not just the soloists. I told myself that if I ever became a professional dancer, his company was where I wanted to be. I could go home at night invigorated from dancing my heart out, and not just as a piece of scenery.

This did come true. As a young corps member I was in the third movement of Symphony in C. (See the photo to the right – can you spot me?) One-and-a-half years later, as was often the case, we were on tour at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles when I was thrown into the lead female role in the second movement. I was ecstatic because I was finally going to dance in a tutu and tiara, the "crowning symbols" of a real ballerina! The performance went well, even the famously nerve-racking balance on pointe with one leg held high to the side.

Performed to Bizet's "Symphony No. 1 in C major," Balanchine first choreographed this work in 1947 for the Paris Opera Ballet, while serving as a guest ballet master there. Its original title was Le Palais de Cristal. Each movement was costumed in different colors, though by the time Balanchine re-staged it for City Ballet’s very first performance in 1948, everyone was costumed in the now-famous white. I once mentioned to Balanchine how fun it would be to go back to the colors, to see the fantastic kaleidoscope created by the dancers as they all return, one movement after the other, for the grand finale. But of course the white is just so stunning.

A few months after my first performance in the second movement, Balanchine changed one step in the choreography, with dramatic results. During rehearsal, while I was in the deep penché arabesque on pointe, holding both of Conrad Ludlow's hands, Balanchine asked if I would be able to bend further, and touch my head all the way down to my knee. It was a moment of spontaneity, and as unorthodox as it may have seemed for such a classical adagio, I honored his request.

Balanchine's eyes lit up with pleasure – perhaps he felt the image was now more true to the music, the ultimate extension of a conventional movement. Or perhaps since the company had recently moved into the larger expanse of the State Theater, Balanchine desired a bolder movement to fill out the generous space. Whatever his reasons, we kept it in performance. It is now the most famous sequence in the ballet, as ballerinas all over the world have been stretching their bodies vertically like this ever since.