Famous Ballets

What are the best ballets and ballet companies in the U.S. and Canada?
In addressing the great ballets, one begins with the classics, operatic or otherwise, that are acknowledged masterpieces, & continues with works that are modern but so tremendously formative as to justify inclusion here:

The Nutcracker

I don’t know about you, but every holiday season, I’m magically transported to the kingdom of The Nutcracker, with its immensely appealing winter vibes and alluring sense of enchantment and romance. Set to Prokofiev’s beloved score by the same name, this well-known ballet is one hefty tome of fantasy – all dreams and made-up things. And once we’ve joined Clara on her isle-hopping adventure with the Nutcracker Prince, we can’t help savoring that childhood goodness and holiday spirit. The choreography weaves ballet with character dance, and every cast member gets a chance to shine: there’s tough-talking Maurice King, with his arched spine and claws outstretched. There’s the beautiful Sugar Plum Fairy, with her magical tutu and glitter-showering finale. The Nutcracker is nothing short of a masterpiece, an enduring ballet classic because it skillfully stirs our capacity for joy and wonder. With every spinning jump and prissy step, the ballet awakes our own fantasy and inner child – that deep desire to be happy and genuinely believe in magic.

Swan Lake

This, of course, is topped off with Tchaikovsky’s glittering and tragic music, making it a perfect fit for the story of forbidden love between Prince Siegfried and Odette, a princess turned into a swan by the curse of an evil sorcerer. It has become one of the most recognizable and popular titles in the classical dance repertoire. Odette/Odile is one of ballet’s most famous and challenging roles – and the dancing of the male star of the piece, Prince Siegfried, along with his female partner Odette, is the show’s centerpiece. The most recognizable ‘money shot’ of the ballet is the part with the corps de ballet on stage – not as Odette, but as the other beauteous swans under the curse of the evil sorcerer: Swan Lake – Act II – Grand Pas with Odette from Siegfried (1895) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, from the film ‘Willis’ by Artur Berling (1973).

The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty (1890), a plot-driven ballet set to the music of Tchaikovsky, with its demands on the dancers, typifies ballet and its music: It depicts a beautiful princess, Aurora, who was cursed by an evil fairy and fell asleep for a hundred years; only after a prince kissed her, she woke up. With its splendid decorations, staging, and the Rose Adagio performed by the principal dancers, the Sleeping Beauty ballet illustrates the beauty and glory of classical dance. The technically challenging choreography calls for the finest skill and artistry of a Danseur or a Ballerina. The ballet So, the world of ballet is depicted, and it ends with love triumphing over the world of ballet and ballet’s triumph over evil because of love.

Giselle

‘Giselle’ is another quintessential piece of the romantic ballet lexicon, a poignant story of love, betrayal, heartbreak, and redemption. The ballet’s central character, Giselle, is an innocent peasant girl whose discovery of a lover who has betrayed her results in her death and her eventual protection of her lover (Albrecht) from beyond the grave. The role of Giselle requires a dancer with a high level of emotional expressivity, whose every movement expresses the tortured despair and ethereal forgiveness of the character she embodies. The choreographic language of the ballet, with its otherworldly Wilis and its heart-wrenching pas de deux, is a tribute to the expressive capacity of the body. ‘Giselle’ is a timeless exploration of the resilience of the human heart and the purity of love.

Romeo and Juliet

Prokofiev sets Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1597) to music, transferring the tale of two youngsters caught up between the warring families of the Montagues and the Capulets from the printed page to the ballet stage with throbbing intensity and poetic beauty. The tragic story of the star-crossed lovers for whom everything goes wrong in Renaissance Verona is set to music with Prokofiev’s typically romantic and exuberant, expressive and lyrical compositions, creating some of the most memorable, passionate, and technically accomplished pas de deux in the ballet’s repertoire. Romeo and Juliet speaks to the power of love and the tragedy of loss but expresses this message in a language that is universally understood through the shared vocabulary of dance.

Anna Karenina

The ballet Anna Karenina (1940) is based on Tolstoy’s great novel, which interprets the churning depths of the human soul against the tide of a rigid Russian high society. In the ballet, Anna’s passionate affair with Count Vronsky is set in juxtaposition to the rigid social constraints that drive her toward her suicide. The choreography has to make sense of the complex emotional landscapes of the characters and convey the physical inner life of the novel by transforming it into the vocabulary of ballet. Anna Karenina is, therefore, a choreographer of feeling.

Carmen

‘Carmen ballet” – Based on Cervantes’s novel, Don Quixote is a sunny, humorous, and bravura Spanish-themed ballet, which combines the adventures of the mad knight Don Quixote and his faithful half-witted squire Sancho Panza with the story of the young lovers Kitri and Basilio. Lively folk character dances and passionate romantic pas de deux are interspersed with a lot of comedy. The bright and sunny music also reflects the warmth of the country. The ballet features spectacular dancing, much theatrical flourish, and the happy diversion of a chivalric fantasy and romantic escapade.

Don Quixote

Based on Cervantes’s novel, Don Quixote is a sunny, humorous, and bravura Spanish-themed ballet, which combines the adventures of the mad knight Don Quixote and his faithful half-witted squire Sancho Panza with the story of the young lovers Kitri and Basilio. Lively folk character dances and passionate romantic pas de deux are interspersed with a lot of comedy. The bright and sunny music also reflects the warmth of the country. The ballet features spectacular dancing, much theatrical flourish, and the happy diversion of a chivalric fantasy and romantic escapade.

Jewels

George Balanchine’s ballet Jewels (1967) is a tripartite work divided into ‘Emeralds,’ ‘Rubies,’ and ‘Diamonds,’ each taking inspiration from a gemstone and punctuated by different musical and choreographic styles. ‘Emeralds’ is lyrical and romantic, ‘Rubies’ jazzy and patriotically American, while ‘Diamonds’ is full of Russian grandeur. A typically abstract work without narrative, Jewels doesn’t attempt to tell a story but instead relies on form and the emotional impact of music to create beauty. By presenting a dance festival of famous works – all by himself and all set to music by revered composers – Balanchine celebrated the splendor of ballet. He also confirmed his genius in forcing its innovations.

Onegin

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, Onegin is a love story, a story of missed opportunities and destinies, and an excellent ballet. Eugene Onegin, a young, arrogant prick, turns down the innocent love of a young rural girl, Tatiana, only to find his feelings changing towards her once it’s too late. The ballet, especially in the John Cranko version, is famous for the expressive pas de deux that showcases the narrative’s rhythmic and emotional highs and lows. Onegin is a tragic narrative of human relations that is rendered beautifully through the expressive and nuanced language of classical ballet, which ultimately becomes a poignant meditation on the choices we make in life.