Forget Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker,” with its insipid candy cane hula hoops. This is the one to beat!
Stravinsky’s “Agon” was first staged by Balanchine’s New York City Ballet (co-founded with Lincoln Kirstein) on this date in 1957. The first performance of the music alone took place at UCLA’s Royce Hall earlier in the year, on June 17th, on a 75th birthday concert for the composer, less than two months after Stravinsky completed the work. Stravinsky’s assistant, Robert Craft, conducted. The next day, the composer himself led the sessions for the work’s first recording.
“Agon” is Greek for “contest,” but it also implies “anguish” or “struggle.” The ballet has no story, but consists of a series of dance movements. Groupings of dancers interact in pairs, trios, quartets, etc. A number of the movements are based on 17th-century French court dances – sarabande, galliard, bransle – but Stravinsky reinterprets them in his own distinctive up-to-date manner. The twelve-tone music is as flirty as anything displayed in the choreography.
I’m no balletomane, but the first time I saw it danced, I knew it was genius.
Stravinsky conducts an excerpt from “Agon”
Some danced selections
Maria Kowroski shares her insights
The complete ballet, seen from a fixed position. Suzanne Farrell, a Balanchine muse, founded her own company at the Kennedy Center in 2000.
A 1960 performance with the New York City Ballet
Of course, watching it on video is not the same as experiencing it in the theater.
I love “The Nutcracker,” but I can’t stand this: it takes a lot to spoil the “Russian Dance,” but Balanchine found a way!
PHOTO: Balanchine and Stravinsky, center, during rehearsals for “Agon”
