Ballet Masterworks: Twentieth Century Music and Dance

March 15: Apollo (1928) One of the choreographers  George Balanchine’s earliest success was his first major collaboration with composer Igor Stravinsky.  The story presents the young god Apollo as he is ushered into adulthood by the muses of poetry,  mime, and dance. The score was a revelation in its restraint and sustained oneness of tone and feeling. It is a classic of pure minimalist drama. 

March 22: Prodigal Son (1929) A thoroughly original take on the narrative story ballet, George  Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, with a commissioned score by Sergei Prokofiev retells the biblical parable with modernist music, décor, and choreography,  translating an ancient tale of sin and redemption into a timeless work. 

March 29: Fancy-Free (1944) In 1944, Jerome Robbins, then a young dancer with The American Ballet Theater, choreographed his first ballet in collaboration with up-and-coming composer Leonard Bernstein. The two wanted to bring a  modern American sensibility to ballet and they hit on a perfect concept: sailors on shore leave in 1940’s New York City. This ballet was the precursor to Broadway’s  On the Town. 

These classes will be presented in a lecture-demonstration style with videos and audience participation. 

Michelle Audet started her professional career as the Founding Director of New York  City Ballet’s Education Department. Working closely with Balanchine, she designed and produced “Ballet for Young People” a performance presentation model that set  

the standard for dance education programming for students, teachers, and ballet-loving adults.  

Three Sessions: 1:30 to 3:30 PM, Wednesday, March 15, 22, and 29 The Cypress, Hilton Head Plantation, 20 Lady Slipper Lane, 

(Use the back gate at the end of Squire Pope Road.)