乐鱼体育

BY NATALIE ROULAND 

This June, the New York City Ballet concluded its 2020鈥�2021 digital season with the  choreographer George Balanchine鈥檚 , a singular work that reflects on a singular year. In the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight against systemic racism, and the U.S. Capitol insurrection, ballet companies across the country not only to survive shuttered theatres and studios but also to prove that ballet remains a viable, vital art form. Viewed against this world-upside-down backdrop, Balanchine鈥檚 1977 ballet assumes a particularly poignant timbre in its testament to grace, civility, and continuity. This late masterwork transports us to bygone eras that are by turn enchanted, tragic, and impossibly glamorous.

At first glance, Vienna Waltzes does not look like a Balanchine ballet. Eschewing the minimalist, neoclassical aesthetic of his 鈥�,鈥� Balanchine offers a lavish spectacle with breathtaking scenery by Tiflis-born  and 鈥溾�� by Kharkov-born . The sylvan set of the Vienna woods literally transforms, as the trees rise magisterially above the stage to form the d茅cor of an Art Nouveau caf茅 and the chandeliers of a mirrored ballroom. Yet this 鈥�,鈥� in which the mechanical movement of the set is visible to the audience, represents Balanchine at his most modern and tracks the history of the waltz from a scandalous folk dance to a 鈥�.鈥�

The dancers of Vienna Waltzes display period costumes spanning the gamut from the puffed-sleeve pink dresses and Hussar jackets of the 1814 Congress of Vienna to the bias-cut white evening gowns and tailcoats of the interwar era. Yet, as the New Yorker dance critic Arlene Croce has argued, 鈥�,鈥� which draws attention to the artifice of the ballet and marks the work as an elegiac retrospective rather than a simplistic reconstruction.

The dancers primarily wear heeled character shoes, and only one scene, 鈥淰oices of Spring,鈥� highlights the virtuoso associated with Balanchine technique. Yet the deep port de bras, elastic backs in the Russian style, and elaborate floor patterns (Croce even called the final 鈥渟wirling鈥� sequence 鈥渁 spectacle of controlled hysteria鈥�) all distinguish the choreography as characteristic of Balanchine鈥檚 oeuvre.

Even the of Vienna Waltzes departs from Balanchine鈥檚 reliance on a signature composer, from his nostalgic interpretations of to his storied collaborations with . In the style of musical pastiche, Vienna Waltzes instead recalls the nineteenth-century practice of compiling a score from the works of multiple composers. Yet Balanchine鈥檚 arrangement reveals the arc of Austro-Hungarian and German Romanticism from its apex to its prefiguring of Modernism: the light music of Johann Strauss II (鈥淭ales from the Vienna Woods,鈥� 鈥淰oices of Spring,鈥� 鈥淓xplosion Polka鈥�) acquires more melancholic undertones with Franz Leh谩r鈥檚 鈥淕old and Silver Waltz鈥� and ascends to frenetic and haunting heights with Richard Strauss鈥檚 鈥淔irst Sequence of Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier.鈥�

The entire production evokes the Russian imperial ballet tradition inherited by Balanchine and emphasizes Russia鈥檚 artistic bond with Europe. Yet Balanchine again hints at a hidden subtext, an alternative story transpiring beneath the glittering fa莽ade of the ballet鈥檚 surface. While the setting is ostensibly Austria from its imperial origins to its twentieth-century nation-statehood, the ballet assumes a more symbolic meaning when viewed at a temporal and geographic distance鈥攖hat is to say, almost fifty years after the premiere, eight years after the 2013 production recently  on the company website, and extracted from its historic home as an exclusively New York City Ballet production.

Unlike from the Balanchine repertoire that have found temporary homes in other companies and other theatres, Vienna Waltzes retains a proprietary aura. Until last month, you could only experience the magical splendor of Vienna Waltzes at the , which opened in 1964 as the , built to . The unique challenges of the global pandemic, however, have endowed this work and others with new lives and new audiences, as viewers worldwide tuned in to watch, and rewatch, Balanchine鈥檚 homage to the past, and perhaps to his own biography.

The imperial regalia of the first movement evokes not only Central European Romanticism but also the Russian , the epoch of Romantic poet Alexander Pushkin and a touchtone for the generation of Russian Modernists, of which Balanchine was a member. The bawdy polka dancers recall not only the dance craze of mid-nineteenth-century Bohemia but also the 鈥減olkomania鈥� and boulevard theatre of Paris, where Balanchine for Sergei Diaghilev鈥檚 Ballets Russes and first established himself as a choreographer. The cavalier of the femme fatale 鈥淢erry Widow鈥� wears the white-and-red uniform of Austria-Hungary鈥檚 last emperor, Franz Joseph I. Yet it is hard not to recall the assassination of his heir presumptive, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which precipitated World War I and the subsequent assassination of Czar Nicholas II. These two moments of trauma marked in Russia. The final waltz to Der Rosenkavalier conjures up not only an early twentieth-century European ball but also a Hollywood film set, where Balanchine elevated during the 1930s and 1940s.

Indeed, the culminating mirrored ballroom of Vienna Waltzes calls to mind the midcentury height of Balanchine鈥檚 celebrity, another moment in history when across state and national boundaries. The 鈥渓ooking glass鈥� of Balanchine鈥檚 stage set not only provides a portal back to the imperial origins of dance but also reflects a more democratic vision that endows ballet with a global audience.

Even at its premiere in 1977, Vienna Waltzes was hailed as a blockbuster, a 鈥溾�� ballet featuring and scaled to the new expansive size of the theater and burgeoning company. Created only six years before , Vienna Waltzes also reflects the pensive mood of a master contemplating his legacy. The two ballerinas who framed the original production, and , served as the last muses of Balanchine and embodied the bookends of his life in ballet鈥攖he delicate charm of Von Aroldingen鈥檚 鈥淕irl in Pink鈥� and the unattainable ideal of Farrell鈥檚 Art Deco diva. Following her of Vienna Waltzes in 1989, Farrell her melancholic solo as waltzing with the ghost of Balanchine.

Former New York City principal dancer depicted the harmony and humanity inherent in Balanchine鈥檚 lifework: 鈥淎 visual autobiography, his ballets are a description of himself, with morality and spirituality at their core.鈥� While the Balanchine tradition of ballet as a moral measure of its society has faltered in recent years, the current company has undergone a renascence, as evidenced by its vibrant digital season. And yet this digital season would not have been possible without Balanchine鈥檚 commitment to securing a permanent home for his company. While many major companies, including the , depend on shared venues and limited access to filming their performances, the New York City Ballet film rival the offerings of major European companies resident in state-supported theaters. Thus the quality of this past year鈥檚 digital season is a testament both to the theater itself and to Balanchine鈥檚 founding vision.

Over a decade ago, dance critic Jennifer Homans warned that 鈥�.鈥� The current pause in the life of the performing arts provides a space for reflecting on the state of this art and its role in the fabric of human history. With its return to stage this fall, Vienna Waltzes offers a way forward: a vision that learns from the lessons of the past while projecting a future that is graceful, resplendent, yet accessible to all.

The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the authors and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute.