Royal Ballet - Balanchine: Three Signature Works

Sensuous and shimmering beauty in three works by the man who defined American ballet.

When George Balanchine arrived on the shores of America, he changed the landscape of 20th-century ballet. With his company New York City Ballet, he created the American neoclassical style and reinvigorated the American ballet world.

Many of his works are in the repertories of companies around the world.

As part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival, The Royal Ballet brings three signature works of Balanchine’s to the Royal Opera House.

Serenade was the first ballet Balanchine created in America. Set to Tchaikovsky’s soaring Serenade for Strings, the ethereal ballet was created on the students at the School of American Ballet, which he had newly founded. The choreography of Serenade reflects this – the real-life mistakes made by the students ended up in his finished ballet. It premiered in 1935.

Prodigal Son is an avant-garde ballet of sin and redemption, and was Balanchine’s last creation on Sergei Diaghilev’s famed ballet company, the Ballets Russes. Inspired by the biblical parable, it recounts the story of a rebellious son who returns home remorseful to his father after a dalliance with a beautiful but dangerous siren. The ballet premiered in 1929 with a commissioned score by Prokofiev.

With its symmetrical formations and crystalline placements, Symphony in C brings this programme to a majestic and exhilarating close. Balanchine choreographed this grand classical work on the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947, finishing its creation in only two weeks and using a newly-discovered Bizet score which gives the ballet its name.