Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux:
See the Music
One of Balanchine’s most performed works, Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux is known for the virtuoso brilliance it requires of its dancers. In this analysis of the female variation, Kara Yoo Leaman uncovers musical patterns that align with choreographic choices made by Balanchine to better demonstrate the different ways ties between music and dance make the ballet visually interesting.
For more, please see Kara’s print article on Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, Variation 2.
Resources
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY (SUGGESTED READING)
Balanchine, George. 1954. Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets. Ed. Francis Mason. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
———. 2006 [1949]. “The Dance Element in Stravinsky’s Music.” Opera Quarterly 22 (1): 138–43.
Cohn, Richard. 2001. “Complex Hemiolas, Ski-Hill Graphs and Metric Spaces.” Music Analysis 20 (3): 295-326.
Cox, Arnie. 2016. Music and Embodied Cognition: Listening, Moving, Feeling, and Thinking. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Goldner, Nancy. 2008. Balanchine Variations. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Homans, Jennifer. 2022. Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century. New York: Random House.
Jordan, Stephanie. 2000. Moving Music: Dialogues with Music in Twentieth-Century Ballet. London: Dance Books.
Leaman, Kara Yoo. 2016. “Analyzing Music and Dance: Balanchine’s Choreography to Tchaikovsky and the Choreomusical Score.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University.
———. 2022. “George Balanchine’s Art of Choreographic Musicality in Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux” Music Theory Spectrum 44 (2): 340–69.
Mason, Francis. 1991. I Remember Balanchine: Recollections of the Ballet Master by Those Who Knew Him. New York: Doubleday.
Reynolds, Nancy. 1977. Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet. New York: The Dial Press.
Stravinsky, Igor, and Robert Craft. 1959. Memories and Commentaries. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Volkov, Solomon. 1992 [1985]. Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky: Conversations with Balanchine on His Life, Ballet, and Music. Trans. Antonina W. Bouis. New York: Doubleday.
Walczak, Barbara, and Una Kai. 2008. Balanchine the Teacher: Fundamentals that Shaped the First Generation of New York City Ballet Dancers. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
Wiley, Roland. 1985. Tchaikovsky’s Ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker. New York: Oxford University Press.
Zbikowski, Lawrence. 2002. Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
Videography
“2007 Alina Somova and Adrian Fadeyev in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.” 2011. YouTube video, 11:17. Posted by “Anthony Dancer,” January 17. https://youtu.be/s2Iau6JgeeQ.
Choreography by Balanchine: Chaconne, Prodigal Son, Ballo Della Regina, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Elegie, and Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux. 2004 [1978]. DVD. Directed by Merrill Brockway. New York: Nonesuch Records.
Violette & Mr. B. 2001. DVD. Directed by Dominique Delouche. Pleasantville, NY: Video Artists International, 2001.
Violette Verdy and Conrad Ludlow coaching Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux. 2015. Directed by Nancy Reynolds. Produced by Virginia Brooks. Filmed on October 26, 2003. New York, NY: George Balanchine Foundation.
Violette Verdy: The Artist Teacher at Chautauqua Institution. 2009. DVD. Directed by Nefin Dinç. Produced by Sara Lundine. Pleasantville, NY: Video Artists International.
