My newest book:
Ballet at MoMA and NYCB
NYCB's spring season opens tonight. I can't wait. Favorite ballets such as Four Temperaments, Symphony in 3 Movements, Firebird, Coppelia, Concerto Barocco, La Valse, Chaconne... are all being performed in the first couple of weeks. What a great way to start!
Over at MoMA there is a wonderful little exhibition, Stage Pictures: Drawing for Performance, that ties in perfectly with ballet and NYCB in particular. The picture above is Marc Chagall's design for a ballet called Aleko (1942). He also did of course the beautiful sets for NYCB's Firebird. There are designs by Bakst, Benois, Sonia Delaunay, Leger and more. Many pieces were originally in Lincoln Kirstein's collection which he donated to the museum.
Above is the original costume design (1946) by Kurt Seligmann for Melancholic corps in Balanchine's Four Temperaments - for Ballet Society. In Kirstein's book, Thirty Years, he writes, " Seligmann swathed our dancers in cerements, bandages, tubes, wraps, and tourniquets, so that dancing became more a dress parade than a display of human bodies in motion. They were soon rejected for practice dress." Just as well, and so they have remained. My daughter got a kick out of this get-up since this is the part she dances herself!
This is the original set design for Serenade: by William B Okie Jr. for SAB, intended for the premiere in Hartford, Conn. in 1934, but pulled just before the performance by Kirstein. The spiral decor proved impossible to hang. The beautiful blue lighting is really all it needs! SAB will be performing Serenade for Workshop this year (along with Stars and Stripes, and Excerpts from Harlequinade - May 30 and June 1).
What a striking design by Sergei Soudeikine, 1929 - for Les Noces. NYCB will be performing Jerome Robbins' Les Noces in June.
Isn't this gorgeous! It's by Natalia Goncharova, c 1937 for Le Coq d'or, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo production, choreography by Michel Fokine. This could make a good backdrop for Firebird too!
The dance part of the exhibition fills just two rooms but is well worth the visit!
Links to New York City Ballet and Museum of Modern Art
PS: Over at Oberon's Grove, Philip has written about opening night . Remember to check in there frequently throughout the season - his blog is the best place to get a first hand report of the performances!