Episodes

By George Balanchine

Premiered by les Grands Ballets in May 2001

Repeated in 2004, 2008

Photos credits

A choice morsel from the Balanchine repertory

Episodes grew out of Balanchine’s enthusiasm for Webern’s music, to which he had been introduced by Stravinsky. Balanchine wrote that “Webern’s orchestral music fills air like molecules; it is written for atmosphere. The first time I heard ... Read more

Photos

See all pictures »

Creation of a joint work

Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein invited Martha Graham to choreograph a joint work with Balanchine using all of Webern’s orchestral pieces. The result was no true collaboration, but a work comprised of two separate sections. Graham’s contribution, Episodes ... Read more

The music

Anton von Webern (1883-1945), an Austrian, was part of the neoclassical movement in music. He was a musical scholar who adopted and extended Schoenberg’s twelve-tone method of composing music, which meant basing a composition on a “series” made up from ... Read more

February 20, 21 & 22, 2014