Balanchine's Ballet

Last night I went to see the National Ballet's Balanchine Triple Bill. It was tear-wellingly brilliant.

George Balanchine created the kind of ballet I love - the perfect mix of modern and classical. The Four Temperaments was originally subtitled "A Dance without a Plot" and declared that ballet no longer needed to be airborne and pretty, but could be non-narrative, evasive and challenging. This resulted in pushing the dancer's body to the limit, which is so beautiful to watch in the delicate lighting, slim-fitting costumes and quick music. But then Theme and Variation was choreographed, as Balanchine wrote, "to evoke that great period in classical dancing when Russian ballet flourished with the aid of Tchaikovsky's music." Pretty tutus, big jumps, soloists flying across the stage - ahhh.