New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a world-renowned company based in the famous Lincoln Centre in NYC. Its founding Ballet Master in Chief was no other than the famous choreographer George Balanchine. Highly protective of the artistic integrity of Balanchine’s choreography, The George Balanchine Trust (the non-for-profit organisation that holds records of all of Balanchine’s ballets) does not often allow public broadcasting of any of Balanchine’s ballets and has tight regulations about how, by who, and when his ballets may be performed. As a result, it is with the delight of ballet fans all around the world that NYCB is broadcasting a Digital Spring Season using recent archival footage. The most recent addition to the 48-hour availability of NYCB ballets is Balanchine’s Apollo.

Created in 1928, Apollo was Balanchine’s first collaboration with composer Igor Stravinsky, a collaboration that would bring us many stunning, paradigm-shifting ballets such as Agon, Duo Concertante, Symphony in Three Movements and many others. In this January 2019 recording, Taylor Stanley is making his debut as the young Greek God Apollo who realises his strength of talent as an artist with the visitation of three Muses. Terpsichore, danced by Tiler Peck is the Muse of dance and song with the symbol of a lyre, Calliope, danced by Indiana Woodward is the Muse of poetry with the symbol of a tablet, and Polyhymnia, danced by Brittany Pollack is the Muse of mime with the symbol of a mask.

Each dancer has a solo conveying their characters’ unique artistic gifts. The genius that is Balanchine abstractly conveys this narrative using nothing more than classical ballet steps with his signature added twist of American jazziness, technical expansion, and gestural hands. In true Balanchine style, the music fits perfectly to convey the mood and arts of each Muse. However, besides the narrative conveyed, it is so easy to get lost in the fascinating movement so beautifully created by NYCB’s pulchritudinous dancers. The very fact that the movement itself is fascinating, almost 100 years after its creation, proves the genius of Balanchine and how ahead of his time he was.

Beyond the dancing is Stravinksy’s sweeping, staggeringly magnificent score. The score itself is a pleasure to listen to and if one does not take to the dancing on stage (which I highly doubt) it is pleasurable enough to close your eyes and simply listen to the dancing strings of the orchestra. A famous Balanchine quote, “See the music, hear the dance”, could not be more relevant to all Stravinsky-Balanchine ballets, but particularly Apollo.

Apollo plays on the old idea of artistic inspiration and creativity being received through Muses. The beauty and inspiration of the classic female Muse is well explored in Apollo and leaves the audience with no doubt that the physical beauty of ballet dancers can lead to the creation of magnificent works of art with visual metaphors that assist people in navigating through life or simply enjoy the beauty of it. Apollo was Balanchine’s earliest international success and quite fittingly so, as the young God Apollo interacts with the mystery of the Muses to realise his creative potential so too did Balanchine.

Even though it is a time of great upheaval and uncertainty in the arts industry, it is a pleasure and gift to have many masterworks, such as Apollo, made available free-of-charge to audiences worldwide. It gives me hope in my fellow artists’ commitment to providing art to the public despite imperfect scenarios, to remind us that we are all in this together, and to hold us in the sublimity of a masterpiece.

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