Included in the Tchaikovsky Festival. Sixteen couples dance, each couple holding aloft a garland of flowers in the form of an arch; a chain of little girls enters, weaving under the garlands, and is joined by nine older girls. In addition to the GARLAND DANCE, the short works presented under the general title Tempo di Valse during the Tchaikovsky Festival (and later in the season) were the WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS from The Nutcracker [302] by Balanchine, VALSE-SCHERZO by d’Amboise, and VARIATION VI FROM TRIO IN A MINOR and WALTZ FROM EUGENE ONEGIN, ACT II by Taras. (See FESTIVALS DIRECTED BY BALANCHINE.)

In the summer of 1951, at Jacob’s Pillow, Diana Adams performed a variation from Aurora’s Wedding (divertissements from Act III of The Sleeping Beauty [Tchaikovsky]), with choreography credited to Balanchine.

The printed program indicates that this selection of excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty included the FAIRY VARIATIONS from the PROLOGUE and divertissements from Act III. Balanchine staged Petipa’s choreography of the BLUEBIRD pas de deux, but altered much of the rest. A duet (presumably for two fairies, which would have given each of the six Fairies a variation) is mentioned in a review by Lillian Moore (Dancing Times, June 1949, p. 497); printed programs list only five solo variations.

In 1955, Balanchine interpolated this music in its original form as a violin cadenza into Act I of his production of The Nutcracker for the New York City Ballet.