Program for the 2016 School of American Ballet Workshop Performances

The faculty of the School of American Ballet has announced the program for the 2016 Workshop Performances on Saturday, June 4th, and for the 2016 Workshop Gala on Tuesday, June 7th:

'The Four Temperaments', Hindemith, Balanchine
'Les Gentilhommes', Handel, Martins
'Danses Concertantes', Stravinsky, Balanchine

After a few years of an 'odds and ends' dance recital format, this year they're returning to a substantial Workshop program that honors the School's seriousness of purpose and offers rewards for the talented students it trains and the devoted audiences who attend the three Workshop Performances.

'The Four Temperaments'

'The Four Temperaments' was first staged by Ballet Society -- the immediate precursor of New York City Ballet -- in 1946 at the auditorium of the Central High School of Needle Trades.  Unlike the austere black-and-white leotard ballet that we will see this June, the original 1946 performances had bizarre costumes by the surrealist artist Kurt Seligmann.
  

Kurt Seligmann's sketch of costume designs for Balanchine's 'The Four Temperaments'.

According to many contemporary viewers Seligmann's costumes distracted from Balanchine's revolutionary choreography. 

Elise Reiman and Herbert Bliss in Kurt Seligmann's original costumes for Balanchine's 'The Four Temperaments'. 

Even before the first performance Balanchine pruned some of the greatest excesses of the costumes.
  

Maria Tallchief in Kurt Seligmann's costume for 'The Four Temperaments'.

When 'The Four Temperaments' re-entered the repertory of New York City Ballet in 1951, Seligmann's costumes had been completely scrapped -- replaced by black-and-white leotards that display Balanchine's choreography in pristine glory.

The commissioned score by Paul Hindemith was created in 1940.  Igor Stravinsky admired the music of Hindemith and probably urged his friend George Balanchine to work with him.  Hindemith initially suggested a work titled 'The Land of Milk and Honey' as a joint project in 1938, but he was unable to produce the score on Balanchine's time table.  In 1940 Hindemith offered to produce the first part of a score for a different ballet in one week.  This opening section of Hindemith's score for piano and string orchestra was first heard that year at one of Balanchine's informal musical evenings.  Among the musicians that evening were Nathan Milstein, Samuel Dushkin (for whom Stravinsky wrote the 'Violin Concerto') and Leon Barzin.  Barzin went on to conduct the first performance of 'The Four Temperaments' at Needle Trades and to become the first conductor for Ballet Society and then for New York City Ballet.

The conceit of 'The Four Temperaments' is the medieval theory that each individual is composed of varying amounts of four temperaments or 'humors' -- melancholic, phlegmatic, sanguinic, and choleric -- which collectively form each personality.  The structure of the ballet is first a series of three pas des deux which establish movement motifs that will recur; then sections for each of the four temperaments; followed by a finale.  There are a total of 25 dancers -- 19 women and 6 men.

Here's a short video clip of the New York City Ballet principal Adrian Danchig-Waring discussing, rehearsing and performing 'The Four Temperaments': 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRgViWiqqr8 

Balanchine's choreography is mostly a response to Hindemith's music.  The sections for the four temperaments have a tenuous relationship to those humors at best.   Balanchine uses the classical ballet vocabulary, but makes subtle alterations.  Often the relationship of the dancers to the audience shifts to profile or diagonal; knees are often bent; feet are flexed; hands, arms and wrists stray from classical positions.  

Justin Peck and Rebecca Krohn of NYC Ballet show the bent knees and profile poses characteristic of Balanchine's 'The Four Temperaments'.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The finale is like a fireworks display as four men lift their ballerinas in explosive grand jetes above the rest of the cast.  Here's a link to a video from San Francisco Ballet performing snippets from the Phlegmatic section and the finale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBqOG3mJyl0

Suki Schorer is enlisting the help of several men from New York City Ballet -- Ask la Cour, Cameron Dieck, and Peter Walker -- in staging this modern masterpiece.

'Les Gentilhommes'

This year the SAB Workshop Gala on Tuesday, June 7th, will celebrate the School's Boys Program, which provides tuition free ballet training to male students.  The Boys Program is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.  Here's a video describing the program:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VllP_nNcWis

Listen for Jock Soto's comments about retirement -- Jock retired from the School's faculty at the end of 2015.

Peter Martins created 'Les Gentilhommes' in 1987 as a tribute to Stanley Williams who taught at the School of American Ballet from 1964 until 1997.  Peter Martins himself had studied with Williams at the Royal Danish Ballet before Williams left Copenhagen for SAB.  Williams' men's classes were legendary for producing some of the finest dancers in American ballet -- and for attracting ballet stars, including Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, whenever they were in town.  Nine of Williams' students danced in the original cast -- Gen Horiuchi, Peter Boal, Carlo Merlo, Jeffrey Edwards, Michael Byers, Damien Woetzel, Richard Marsden, Cornell Crabtree and Runsheng Ying.

The cast of the 2011 School of American Ballet Workshop production of Peter Martins' 'Les Gentilhommes'.

Set to Georg Friedrich Handel's 'Concerto in F, Opus 6, #9' and the Largo from 'Concerto in F, Opus 6, #2', Martins choreography displays the refinement and elegance that Williams demanded of his students.  Through the costumes, lighting and movement, we are brought into the courtly world of the 18th century with allusions to fencing and dancing and formal rules of conduct.

Peter Martins and Arch Higgins are already working with the Advanced Men on 'Les Gentilhommes'.

'Danses Concertantes'  

Balanchine's 'Danses Concertantes' was created in 1944 for the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo.  Igor Stravinsky composed the score in 1941 as an orchestral work --  in effect, 'concert dances'.  The score is decidedly dancey and Balanchine found it inspiring -- twice.  The original 1944 production was lead by Alexandra Danilova (another legendary teacher at SAB) and Frederic Franklin.  Although the pick-up orchestras the Ballet Russe used on their perpetual tours struggled with the complexities of the score, it remained in their repertory until 1948.

Balanchine created new choreography for a second version for New York City Ballet's 1972 Stravinsky Festival -- he claimed that he couldn't remember the original steps.  Linda Yourth and John Clifford led the 1972 cast.  The same colorful sets and costumes designed by Eugene Berman were used for both the 1944 and 1972 versions -- they were particular favorites of Stravinsky.

Darci Kistler and Robert LaFosse led New York City Ballet's 1988 revival of the 1972 version.  Hopefully, Ms. Kistler will be involved in staging 'Danses Concertantes' for the SAB workshops.  

New York City Ballet dancers in a recent revival of Balanchine's 'Danses Concertante' led by Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The cast consists of a principal couple and four color-coded trios of two women and one man.  They are introduced in a prologue -- a parade in front of Berman's colorful front curtain.  When that curtain rises there is a sequence of four pas des trois followed by a pas de deux for the lead couple and then a final parade for the entire cast.  

Balanchine's choreography is bubbly and effervescent -- like champagne -- but then quickly evaporates.  The whole ballet is colorful, clever and energetic.  It will provide a frisky, insouciant high note for the students at the end their program.