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In dance, “musicality” usually refers to a dancer’s ability to keep in time with the music or to control their movement phrasing and rubato. Choreographic musicality deals with a choreographer’s choices in setting steps to music. This lecture examines some facets of George Balanchine’s art of choreographic musicality as seen in excerpts from ballets set to the music of J.S. Bach (Concerto Barocco), G. Bizet (Symphony in C), W.A. Mozart (Divertimento No. 15), and P.I. Tchaikovsky (Serenade, Theme and Variations, and Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux). Using choreomusical notation, annotated video clips, and live demonstrations by a student dancer, I present close readings of the ways Balanchine set physical movements to patterns of musical pitch, rhythm, harmony, texture, and form. This presentation offers specific details to support long-held intuitions about the “musicality” of Balanchine’s ballets and offers a view of his unique choreomusical style.

One of the most prolific and influential choreographers of the twentieth century, Balanchine was also a musician, trained in piano, theory, and composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Viewed as exceptionally musical, Balanchine’s ballets continue to be performed widely, forty years after his death, influencing generations of contemporary choreographers