The Steadfast Tin Soldier | |
---|---|
Choreographer | George Balanchine |
Music | Georges Bizet |
Based on | "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" by Hans Christian Andersen |
Premiere | July 30, 1975 Saratoga Performing Arts Center |
Original ballet company | New York City Ballet |
Design | David Mitchell |
Created for | Patricia McBride Peter Schaufuss |
Genre | Neoclassical ballet |
The Steadfast Tin Soldier is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Bizet's Jeux d'enfants , based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1838 fairytale of the same name of the love between a tin soldier and a paper-doll ballerina. The ballet premiered on July 30, 1975, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, with New York City Ballet's Patricia McBride and Peter Schaufuss. [1] [2]
George Balanchine first used Bizet's Jeux d'enfants for a 1955 project, in collaboration with choreographers Barbara Milberg and Francisco Moncion, danced by Melissa Hayden and Roy Tobias. It was revived four years later, with the choreography only credited to Balanchine. [1]
The 1975 version, a pas de deux, was commissioned by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, where the New York City Ballet performs annually, and premiered on Bizet's centennial year, performed by Patricia McBride and Peter Schaufuss. The ballet uses sets and costumes designed by David Mitchell. [1] After he made The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Balanchine, who had adapted Andersen fairytales before, said what attracted him to fairytales by Andersen was the "underlying Christian substructure". [3] The 1975 ballet premiered in New York City the following year. [4]
In 2020, in response to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts, the New York City Ballet released a 2014 video recording of The Steadfast Tin Soldier, featuring Erica Pereira and Daniel Ulbricht. [5]
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a tin soldier's love for a paper ballerina. The tale was first published in Copenhagen by C.A. Reitzel on 2 October 1838 in the first booklet of Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. The booklet consists of Andersen's "The Daisy" and "The Wild Swans". The tale was Andersen's first not based upon a folk tale or a literary model. "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" has been adapted to various media including ballet and animated film.
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Patricia McBride is a ballerina who spent nearly 30 years dancing with the New York City Ballet. McBride joined the New York City Ballet in 1959. She became a principal in 1961, becoming the company's youngest principal. She danced with the company for 30 years, including roles created for her by choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.
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Barbara Anne Milberg Fisher was an American academic and professional dancer. She was professor emerita of English at the City College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she taught for 29 years. She published several works, including on the life of Wallace Stevens. Prior to her academic career, under her maiden name, Barbara Milberg, she danced with the short-lived Ballet Society, founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein; became soloist with the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in its first decade; and then joined Jerome Robbins's newly formed Ballets: USA, touring Europe and the States with that company as a principal dancer.
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Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet is a one-act ballet by George Balanchine, to Johannes Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 1, orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg. The ballet premiered on April 21, 1966 at the New York State Theater, performed by the New York City Ballet.
Who Cares? is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to songs by George Gershwin that were orchestrated by Hershy Kay. The ballet is split in two parts, the first danced by an ensemble, and the second focuses on four principal dancers. Who Cares? premiered on February 5, 1970, at the New York State Theater, danced by the New York City Ballet.
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Scherzo à la Russe is a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Stravinsky's music of the same name. The ballet was created for New York City Ballet's Stravinsky Festival, a tribute to the composer after his death, and premiered on June 21, 1972, at the New York State Theater, with the two lead roles originated by Karin von Aroldingen and Kay Mazzo.
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