Enter one of ballet’s most fascinating periods, when impresarios and daring choreographers changed the course of dance history. Ballet Russe Reimagined is a three-part series paying homage to the innovations that propelled ballet into the 20th and 21st centuries. Part 3 includes George Balanchine’s Serenade and Gerald Arpino’s Light Rain.
Serenade
Regarded as the most prominent choreographer in ballet during the 20th Century, George Balanchine began his choreographic start with the Ballets Russes company before immigrating to the United States of America in 1933. Along with Lincoln Kirstein, Balanchine founded the School of American Ballet, and later, New York City Ballet. Serenade was the first ballet Balanchine choreographed in America in 1934 and is considered a masterwork of the 20th Century.
Light Rain
Gerald Arpino, a co-founder of Joffrey Ballet, created Light Rain in 1981. Light Rain, “represents the youth and energy of the dancers it was created on,” according to the Arpino Foundation. The energetic and dynamic ballet showcases the evolution of neoclassical ballet nearly 50 years after Serenade premiered and remains the most requested work in the Arpino Foundation.
