Essential Ballet

Swan Lake

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky · 1877

A cursed princess transformed into a white swan by an evil sorcerer can only regain her human form at night. When a noble prince falls passionately in love with her, he vows to break the enchantment—but the sorcerer's seductive daughter, disguised as the swan princess, threatens to destroy their love and seal the curse forever. This timeless tale of devotion, deception, and transcendent beauty remains ballet's most beloved masterpiece.

The Sleeping Beauty

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky · 1890

The Nutcracker

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky · 1892

On Christmas Eve, young Clara receives a mysterious wooden Nutcracker from her eccentric godfather Drosselmeyer. When the doll comes to life and battles the sinister Mouse King, Clara is transported into an enchanted realm of snow, flowers, and exotic delights. In the magical Land of Sweets, the Nutcracker is revealed as a handsome prince, and Clara is welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy in a celebration of wonder and transformation.

Romeo and Juliet

Sergei Prokofiev · 1938

Prokofiev's sweeping dramatic ballet transforms Shakespeare's timeless tragedy into a visceral dance narrative of star-crossed love. Two young dancers from feuding families discover passion amid the violent rivalries of Verona, their romance flowering in stolen moments before fate's cruel intervention. The ballet captures both the lyrical tenderness of their devotion and the brutal spectacle of Renaissance vendetta, culminating in a devastating final tableau.

Don Quixote

Ludwig Minkus · 1869

The aging Spanish knight Don Quixote embarks on quixotic adventures across the windswept plains of La Mancha, his imagination transforming mundane encounters into epic quests. Enchanted by the beautiful Dulcinea, he pursues her with chivalrous devotion while his faithful squire Sancho Panza navigates the chaos of their misadventures. Through a dreamlike journey of romance, comedy, and spectacle, Cervantes' immortal tale celebrates the power of idealism and the redemptive nature of love.

Coppélia

Léo Delibes · 1870

In a sun-dappled village square, the spirited Swanhilda grows jealous when her fiancé Franz becomes infatuated with Coppélia, a mysterious beauty who perpetually reads on a balcony. Discovering that Coppélia is merely a mechanical doll crafted by the eccentric Dr. Coppélius, Swanhilda infiltrates his workshop and ingeniously disguises herself as the automaton to save Franz from the doctor's sinister experiment. The ballet concludes in triumph as the lovers are reunited and celebrated at the Festival of the Bells.

Jewels

Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky · 1967

A plotless triptych celebrating the aesthetic and technical brilliance of classical ballet through the metaphor of precious jewels. Each act—Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds—explores distinct ballet traditions and vocabularies, from the lyrical French style to the virtuosic Russian school, unified by Balanchine's crystalline choreographic vision.

Serenade

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky · 1934

Balanchine's groundbreaking abstract masterpiece transforms Tchaikovsky's luminous string serenade into pure choreographic poetry. Without narrative or named characters, the ballet unfolds as an elegant meditation on form, movement, and the interplay between soloist and ensemble—a revolutionary assertion that ballet need not tell a story to move the soul.

La Sylphide

Herman Severin Løvenskiold · 1836

A young Scottish farmer, James, is visited on his wedding eve by a mysterious sylph—a supernatural spirit of the air who captivates him with her otherworldly grace. Torn between his mortal bride and the ethereal sylph's seductive promise of eternal love, James abandons his wedding and pursues the phantom into the forest. The sylph's jealous rival, the witch Madge, orchestrates his downfall through a cursed scarf, leading to a tragic denouement that explores the fatal consequences of choosing illusion over reality.

Manon

Jules Massenet · 1974

Kenneth MacMillan's *Manon* traces the tragic arc of a young woman caught between desire and respectability in 18th-century Paris. When the innocent Manon meets the devoted Des Grieux, their passionate love affair ignites—yet her susceptibility to luxury and the seductions of wealth inexorably drives them toward ruin. Set to Massenet's lush score, this narrative ballet unfolds as a devastating meditation on love's fragility against the relentless pressures of class and desire.

Onegin

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (arr. Kurt-Heinz Stolze) · 1965

John Cranko's masterwork traces the tragic intersection of four souls bound by love and pride in Imperial Russia. When the jaded aristocrat Onegin spurns the innocent Tatiana's passionate devotion, he sets in motion a cascade of heartbreak that culminates in a duel with her devoted suitor Lensky. Years later, transformed and married to the noble Prince Gremin, Tatiana encounters Onegin once more—and their final, anguished encounter reveals the irreversible cost of his youthful cruelty.

Agon

Igor Stravinsky · 1957