Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery
The
TRAINING AND EARLY CHOREOGRAPHY 1904-1933
Tamara, George and Andrei
Balanchine in harlequin costumes, ca. 1911.
Unidentified photographer
Digital enlargement 9 ¾
in. x 6 in. of a gelatin-silver copy print, 6-3/8 in. x 4-3/8 in
Courtesy
of
George Balanchine, his
brother Andrei, and sister Tamara, ca. 1907.
Unidentified photographer
Gelatin-silver copy
print, 7 in. x 9-3/8 in.
Courtesy
of
Portrait of George
Balanchine, ca. 1924.
Photograph by Vladimir
Dmitriev
Exhibition enlargement 5
ft. x 3 ft. 9 in.
Alexandra Danilova and
Serge Lifar in George Balanchine’s ballet Apollon Musagetes, to music by
Igor Stravinsky, Diaghilev Ballets Russes, 1928.
Unidentified photographer
Photographic enlargement
mounted on masonite, 30 in. x 40 in.
I look back on Apollo
as the turning point of my life.
The score was a
revelation. It seemed to tell me that I
too
could eliminate. I began to see how I could clarify by
limiting,
by reducing to the one
possibility that is inevitable.
Pavel Tchelitchew
Study of an angel, two
attendants and a woman in the revised version of George Balanchine’s L’Errante,
music by Franz Schubert, for the American Ballet Company,
Gouache, 17 ¾ in. x 11
in.
Fan
Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Fund
Pavel Tchelitchew
Costume design for two
young men in George Balanchine’s ballet L’Errante, Les Ballets 1933.
Gouache, 22 in. x 14 ¼
in.
Gift of
LES BALLETS 1933 AND THE INVITATION
Letter from Lincoln
Kirstein, written from
Photocopy
Gift of
Portrait of George
Balanchine, 1933.
Photograph by George
Platt Lynes
Gelatin-silver print,
9-7/8 in. x 8 in.
Portrait of Edward M.M.
Warburg, ca. 1930s
Unidentified photographer
Gelatin-silver print, 10
in x 8 in.
Gift of
Portrait of Lincoln
Kirstein, ca. 1930s
Photograph by George
Platt Lynes
Gelatin-silver print, 8
in. x 10 in.
“Sponsors for the Exhibit
of Contemporary Art at Harvard”
Photocopy, unidentified
newspaper, 10 in. x 8 in.
Courtesy of
Alfred Eisenstadt
Students at the
Exhibition enlargement 3
ft. 4 in. x 4 ft. 2 in.
When
our
January
1934 in an old loft building on
Avenue
at
Isadora
Duncan’s studio, there was nothing apparent
save
big windows, high ceilings, and the strong
if
unorganized intention of creating a national institution.
Serenade, performed by students of the
Unidentified photographer
Gelatin-silver print, 6
in. x 9-3/8 in.
Annabelle Lyon, Ruthanna
Boris, Helen Leitch, Holly Howard and Elise Reiman in Serenade, American
Ballet Company, 1935.
Photograph by Vandamm
Studio
Gelatin-silver print, 8
in. x 10 in.
The Producing Company of
the
Program
Avery Memorial Theatre,
Letterpress, 8 ½ in. x 8
½ in.
Jean Lurçat
Costume design for Serenade,
1934.
Watercolor and ink, 11 ¾
in. x 9 in.
Courtesy of Nancy
Lassalle
We must first realize
that dancing is an important
independent art, not
merely a secondary accompanying one.
John Held
Two costume designs for
the George Balanchine’s Alma Mater, to music by Kay Swift, orchestrated
by Morton Gould, American Ballet Company, 1935.
Watercolor and ink, 8 ½
in. x 6-5/8 in.
Gift of
Gisella Caccialanza and
William Dollar in Alma Mater, American Ballet Company, 1935.
Photograph by Vandamm
Studio
Gelatin-silver print, 8
in. x 10 in.
Gift of
George Balanchine’s Alma
Mater, American Ballet Company, 1935, signed by the dancers.
Unidentified photographer
Gelatin-silver print, 8
in. x 10 in.
Gift of
THE EARLY COMPANIES AND BROADWAY 1934-1945
On Broadway I learned
how to please the public.
I am commercial.
On Your Toes was George Balanchine’s first major Broadway
show. Written by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz
Hart and George Abbott, with music and lyrics by Roger and Hart, it opened in
1936. This window card is for the 1983
revival.
Advertising window card,
offset lithography, 22 in. x 14 in.
Tamara Geva, Ray Bolger
and George Church in On Your Toes, 1936.
Photograph
by Jerome Robinson
Gelatin-silver print, 7 ½
in. x 10 in.
Gift of
Advertising window card,
letterpress, 19 ½ in. x 12 ¾ in.
Billy Rose Theater
Collection
Three production
photographs of The Boys from Syracuse, with Heidi Vosseler, Betty Bruce
and George Church, 1938.
Photographs
by Vandamm Studio and Jerome Robinson
Gelatin-silver
prints, 8 in. x 10 in., 7 in. x 10-1/8 in. and 9-7/8 in. x 7 in.
Gift
of Dorene Church
Cover of Life Magazine,
December 28, 1936, showing members of the American Ballet Company, which was
appointed the resident ballet company of the Metropolitan Opera.
Photograph by Alfred
Eisenstadt
Exhibition enlargement 5
ft. x 3 ft. 9 in.
Article about the
American Ballet Company in Life Magazine, December 28, 1936, marking its
appointment as the resident ballet company of the Metropolitan Opera.
Photographs by Alfred
Eisenstadt
Letterpress, two-page
spread, 14 in x 21 in.
George Balanchine, Igor
Stravinsky, stagehands and dancers in a backstage card game at the Metropolitan
Opera. The photograph publicized the
Balanchine/Stravinsky ballet The Card Party, danced by the American
Ballet Company at the Metropolitan Opera, 1937.
Photograph by Raymond
Smith
Gelatin-silver print,
7-5/8 in. x 9 ½ in.
William Dollar and Daphne
Vane in Orfeo ed Eurydice, to music by C.W. Gluck, costumes by Pavel
Tchelitchew, American Ballet Company at the Metropolitan Opera, 1936.
Photograph by George
Platt Lynes
Gelatin-silver print, 9
in. x 7-3/8 in.
Lew Christensen and
William Dollar in Orfeo ed Eurydice, 1936.
Photograph by George
Platt Lynes
Gelatin-silver print, 9
in. x 7-3/8 in.
Alice Halicka
Costume design for a
Russian peasant woman in George Balanchine’s Le Baiser de la Fée, to
music by Igor Stravinsky, after a story by Hans Christian Andersen, premiered
by the American Ballet Company at the Metropolitan Opera, April 27, 1937. This design was for a 1947 production of
Balanchine’s ballet at the Paris Opera.
Watercolor and pencil, 20
½ in. x 13 ½ in.
Cia Fornaroli Fund
William Dollar and
Gisella Caccialanza in Le Baiser de la Fée, American Ballet Company at
the Metropolitan Opera, 1937.
Photograph by Richard
Tucker
Gelatin-silver print, 6 ½
in. x 8 ½ in.
Gift of Lincoln Kirstein
Members of the American
Ballet Company in Le Baiser de la Fée, 1937.
Photograph by Richard
Tucker
Gelatin-silver print,
8-1/8 in. x 10 in.
Gift
of Lincoln Kirstein
Lew Christensen in the
title role of George Balanchine’s Apollo, ca. 1937.
Photograph by George
Platt Lynes
Gelatin-silver print, 9 ¾
in. x 7 ½ in.
Lew Christensen and Elise
Reiman in George Balanchine’s Apollo, American Ballet Company at the
Metropolitan Opera, 1937
Photograph by Schulmann.
Gelatin-silver print,
5-5/8 in. x 8 ½ in.
Gift of Lincoln Kirstein
Lew Christensen and
Marie-Jeanne in Apollo, American Ballet Company at the Metropolitan
Opera, 1937.
Photograph by Schulmann
Gelatin-silver print, 6 ¾
in. x 11 ½ in.
Gift of Lincoln Kirstein
Mstislav Valerianovich
Dobuzhinskii
Scenic design for Ballet
Imperial, American Ballet Caravan, 1941.
Gouache and pencil, 15
in. x 20 in.
Dance Committee Purchase
Fund
George Balanchine’s Ballet
Imperial, to Tchaikovsky’s Piano concerto no. 2 in G major, costumes and
scenery by Dobuzhinskii, American Ballet Caravan, 1941.
Photograph by Philippe
Halsman
Gelatin-silver print, 7 ¾
in. x 9-5/8 in.
Audition for School of
American Ballet, 1940. Tanaquil Le
Clercq is immediately to the right of teacher Kyra Blanc.
Unidentified photographer
Gelatin-silver print, 7 ¼
in. x 9-5/8 in.
School of American Ballet
Catalog 1941-42
Letterpress, 9 in. x 6
in.
Music and the Dance
(a workshop course)
Attention will be
focused on the most important elements of
construction within a
musical work, and their relation to
the dance movements
based on it. Studies in movement
and rhythmic gesture
will be worked out, in collaboration with dance
instructors, beginning
with the smallest particles of the given
musical material,
progressing to the full complexity of its complete
form, and an ensuing
complete awareness of the relations of
the complementary
functions of music and dance.
This course will include a study of
the rudiments of music,
musical notation,
reading and memorizing exercises, studies
in rhythm with the aid
of percussion instruments, analysis
of musical form and
construction.
This is a
lecture-demonstration course (with phonographic recordings)
which will encompass
the dance forms of the pre-classic, classic
and romantic periods
of England, France, Germany, and Austria,
Scandinavia, the
Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Russia, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, North
America, Mexico, and Cuba, Brazil, and Argentina.
Dance forms will be analyzed as to their characteristics of
musical
structure and their
national and historical background, with
a view to giving the
dance student insight into the great variety of styles.
From the 1940 catalog
of the School of American Ballet
RKO Pathé Films
George Balanchine
partnering a student at the School of American Ballet, ca. 1934.
George Balanchine
teaching class at the School of American Ballet, ca. 1934.
Prints from two frames of
motion picture film, 4 in x 5 in.
American Ballet Company
Souvenir program, 1935.
Letterpress, 12 in. x 9
in.
George Balanchine with
students of the School of American Ballet, 1948. Edward Villella is center.
Photograph by George
Platt Lynes
Gelatin-silver print, 7 ½
in x 9-5/8 in.
George Balanchine’s Concerto
Barocco, to Johan Sebastian Bach’s Double violin concerto in D minor,
costume design by Eugene Berman, American Ballet Company, first performance at
Hunter College Playhouse, May 28, 1941.
Photograph by George
Platt Lynes
Gelatin-silver print, 7 ½
in. x 9 ¼ in.
Ballet Caravan
Souvenir program, 1940-41
Letterpress, 12 ¼ in. x 9
¼ in.
American Ballet Company
Programs:
Montevideo, Uruguay, 1941
São Paulo, Brazil, 1941
Letterpress, 9 ½ in. x 6
in.
American Ballet Company
Program showing the cover
and an opening with texts about Concerto Barocco and El Marciélago
(The Bat), with photographs by George Platt Lynes.
Letterpress, 10 in. x 7
in.
George Balanchine’s The
Bat, to the overture of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, costumes by Keith
Martin, American Ballet Caravan, 1941.
Photograph by George
Platt Lynes
Gelatin-silver print,
5-5/8 in. x 8-3/8 in.
Gift of Lincoln Kirstein