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).

This article is about Balanchine's 1957 ballet. For the classical Greek word, see Agon. For other uses, see Agon (disambiguation).

Agon
Choreographed by	George Balanchine
Composed by	Igor Stravinsky
Date of premiere	1 December 1957
Place of premiere	City Center of Music and Drama, New York
Original ballet company	New York City Ballet
Genre	Neoclassical ballet
Type	classical ballet
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Agon (1957) is a ballet for twelve dancers, with music by Igor Stravinsky and choreography by George Balanchine. Composition began in December 1953 and concluded in April 1957; the music was first performed on June 17, 1957 in Los Angeles conducted by Robert Craft, while the first stage performance was given by the New York City Ballet on December 1, 1957 at the City Center of Music and Drama, New York. The composition's long gestation period covers an interesting juncture in Stravinsky's composing career, in which he moved from a diatonic musical language to one based on twelve-tone technique; the music of the ballet thus demonstrates a unique symbiosis of musical idioms. The ballet has no story, but consists of a series of dance movements in which various groups of dancers interact in pairs, trios, quartets etc. A number of the movements are based on 17th-century French court dances – saraband, galliard and bransle. It was danced as part of City Ballet's 1982 Stravinsky Centennial Celebration‎

Contents 1 Instrumentation 2 Casts 2.1 original 2.2 NYCB revivals 2.2.1 2008 Winter tour 2.2.2 2008 Summer tour to Copenhagen 2.2.3 2009 Fall tour to Japan 2.2.3.1 first cast 2.2.3.2 second cast 2.2.4 2010 Winter 3 Further reading 4 Articles 5 External links

Instrumentation

Agon is scored for a large orchestra consisting of piccolo, 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), harp, piano, mandolin, timpani, tom-tom, xylophone, castanets, and strings.

Casts

original

Todd Bolender Barbara Milberg Barbara Walczak Roy Tobias

Jonathan Watts Melissa Hayden Diana Adams Arthur Mitchell

NYCB revivals

2008 Winter tour

t.b.a.

2008 Summer tour to Copenhagen

t.b.a.

2009 Fall tour to Japan

first cast

Wendy Whelan Rebecca Krohn Ashley Laracey Teresa Reichlen

Sébastien Marcovici Sean Suozzi Amar Ramasar Adrian Danchig-Waring

second cast

Maria Kowroski Rebecca Krohn Ashley Laracey Teresa Reichlen

Sébastien Marcovici Sean Suozzi Amar Ramasar Adrian Danchig-Waring

2010 Winter

t.b.a.

Further reading

Joseph, Charles M., Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Journey of Invention

White, Eric Walter, Stravinsky: the composer and his works

Articles

• NY Times by Alastair Macaulay, November 25, 2007

External links

Balanchine Foundation website

Balanchine Trust website

NYCB website

• The Bransles of Stravinsky's Agon : A Transition to Serial Composition By Bonnie S. Jacobi

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