Agon

Ballet in one act with choreography by Balanchine, music by Stravinsky, and lighting by Nananne Porcher. First performed at a benefit preview 27 Nov. 1957, and officially premiered 1 Dec. 1957, by New York City Ballet at City Center, New York, with Adams, Hayden, Mitchell, and Bolender. It is set to Stravinsky's specially commissioned score, the title of which is Greek for contest, and its twelve dancers, dressed in plain practice clothes, frequently appear to compete for technical precedence in feats of balance, strength and co-ordination. In the pas de deux which concludes the second of the work's three major sections the traditional language of classical partnerwork is wittily and erotically inverted as the man and woman try to assert dominance over each other. Stravinsky's score, while astringently modernist in its serial compositional technique, refers back to the structure of court dances like saraband, galliarde, and branle, while Balanchine's athletic, stripped-down choreography has similar echoes of those dances' characteristic steps and manners. The ballet is widely considered to be one of Balanchine's masterpieces and also one of the century's greatest dance works. It has been revived for many other companies including Stuttgart Ballet (1970), Royal Ballet (1973), Paris Opera (1974), Berlin Opera Ballet (1977), Zurich Opera Ballet (1978), and Birmingham Royal Ballet (1996). Other choreographers who have used the same score include MacMillan (London, 1958) and T. Gsovsky (Berlin, 1958).