Neoclassical ballet
A twentieth-century ballet style that retains classical technique while favoring abstraction, musical structure, and reduced theatrical narrative.
Classical ballet: A codified dance tradition built on turned-out legs, pointe work, and established positions and steps. Neoclassical choreography keeps this technique while loosening its traditional rules and theatrical conventions.
Serenade (ballet): George Balanchine’s 1934 ballet to Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, created for students of the School of American Ballet. Its ensemble choreography turns classical steps and formations into an expressive, largely non-narrative work.
George Balanchine: A Georgian-born choreographer who shaped twentieth-century ballet and co-founded New York City Ballet. His choreography became the most influential model of American neoclassical ballet.
Ballets Russes: A touring ballet company founded by Sergei Diaghilev that presented influential works across Europe from 1909 to 1929. Its collaborations among choreographers, composers, and designers established a model for modern ballet innovation.
Romantic ballet: A nineteenth-century ballet tradition known for supernatural themes, expressive heroines, and ethereal movement. Its emphasis on narrative fantasy and romantic atmosphere contrasts with neoclassical abstraction.
Balanchine technique: A ballet training approach associated with George Balanchine, emphasizing speed, musicality, and expansive, sharply articulated movement. It develops classical technique toward the quickness and spatial clarity central to Balanchine’s neoclassical choreography.
Apollo (ballet): George Balanchine’s 1928 ballet to Stravinsky, depicting Apollo and three Muses through spare, classically grounded choreography. Its restrained mythic premise and sculptural movement helped define Balanchine’s neoclassical style.
Serge Lifar: A Ukrainian-born ballet dancer and choreographer who led the Paris Opéra Ballet from 1930 to 1944 and 1947 to 1958. His works helped renew French ballet through a modernized but classically based style.
Sergei Diaghilev: A Russian impresario who founded and directed the Ballets Russes. He brought artists together whose work challenged ballet’s inherited conventions before neoclassical ballet emerged.
Ballet blanc: A ballet scene or work featuring a corps de ballet in white costumes, often in a supernatural setting. Its uniform visual world and dreamlike storytelling differ from neoclassical works’ varied, often minimal staging.