REVISIONIST HISTORY: Spotlight on George Balanchine
For this season’s performances (April 19-22), Brooklyn Ballet is embracing multifaceted dance styles and refashioning historical works. One of those historic works is The Four Temperaments (1946) by legendary dancemaker George Balanchine. A ballet with unceasing appeal, The Four Temperaments references the medieval concept of the psychological humors that exists within every person: melancholic, sanguinic, phlegmatic, and choleric.
The Four Temperaments is visionary because of its abstractness - the dance was not created to tell a story (unlike many ballets of that time) and the dancers performed the work in simple, black and white practice leotards and tights - so as not to distract from the movement.
In 1957, New York Times critic John Martin wrote of the ballet: “Looked at purely as movement, this is a remarkable ballet, both in its invention of curiously creative movements and in its development of them in phrases of high potency.”
Former New York City Ballet dancer Deborah Wingert restages Themes 1-3 of this iconic ballet on Brooklyn Ballet Company. Pianist Julius Abrahams accompanies the work. Tickets are on sale now!
Photos of Brooklyn Ballet Company performing The Four Temperaments in 2011 by Julie Lemberger
