Discover Balanchine’s ballet
Theme and Variations
A technical tour de force set to Tchaikovsky's third orchestral suite
Theme and Variations is Balanchine’s homage to the heights of Russian classical dance. It was intended, he said, to 'evoke that great period in classical dancing when Russian ballet flourished with the aid of Tchaikovsky's music.'
The piece was created in 1947, just two years after the end of World War II, when Balanchine was a Russian émigré living in New York. The mini masterpiece combines his old-word training at the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg with new-world innovation, producing a dazzling new classicism. The work has been described as a condensed version of a grand classical ballet, stripped of the storylines.
The result is an abstract work of pure dance grace with costumes and sets reminiscent of the famous fairytale ballets. Above all, the choreography calls for the dancers to match Tchaikovsky’s music for its sheer fluidity and poetic expression. Balanchine reveals subtle aspects of the music with diamond-sharp footwork that calls for great technical virtuosity.
The 30-minute ballet is set to the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s third orchestral suite and consists of 12 variations, danced by a corps of 12 men and 12 women and a principal couple. The principals dance in turns with the corps: solos, variations and divertissements, leading to a central pas de deux. The ballet ends on a grand polonaise which builds to a climactic finale for the entire cast.
Read more: The Russian classical era which inspired this ballet
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Theme and Variations:
In brief
Ballet in one act
Music: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky. Suite No. 3 for Orchestra in G Major, Op. 55 - 4th movement
Choreography: George Balanchine
World premiere: 26 November 1947, Ballet Theatre, City Center of Music
and Drama, New York
Designs: John B Read
Staging: Patricia Neary
Current Royal Ballet production
Production premiere: 5 March 2007
Set and costume designer: Peter Farmer
Lighting designer: John B Read
Staging: Patricia Neary
Discover the composer:
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
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