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Ballet Alert Quiz #26
February 22, 1999
Seasonal Delights

1. One of Pavlova's most famous numbers, this ballet told of the sad fate of a chrysanthemum.

Autumn Leaves

2. What dance by a now-famous modern dance choreographer was taken into the New York City Ballet's repertory, and put on pointe?

Summerspace (Merce Cunningham)

3. This ballet's riotous first night was one of the most famous events in ballet history (name the choreographer as well).

Vaslav Nijinsky's Le Sacre de printemps/Rite of Spring

4. A famous Soviet pas de deux once seen at every gala, it features perhaps the most dramatic leap-and-catch ever.

Spring Waters

5. Set to music by Verdi, versions of this ballet have been made by both Robbins and MacMillan.

The Four Seasons

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Ballet Alert Quiz Number 25
February 15, 1999
Cities

Clue: The answer to each question is the title of a ballet, and each title contains the name of a city.

1. Set in the French Revolution, this Soviet ballet is now best known for a virtuoso pas de deux.

Flames of Paris

2. An Italian city is the setting for this Danish ballet - the middle act is set on Capri.

Napoli

3. Music mostly by Strausses inspires this opulent late Balanchine work.

Vienna Waltzes

4. One of Jerome Robbins' "American teenager ballets," this 1958 work to a contemporary score was "exported" to several companies.

NY Export: Opus Jazz

5. Named after its Shostakovich score, this ballet celebrates the heroism of a whole city during war.

Leningrad Symphony

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Answers to Ballet Quiz Number 24
February 8, 1999
A Diaghilev's Dancers Quiz

1. She was one of the most beloved of Diaghilev's ballerinas. Among her many created roles was that of The Firebird.

Tamara Karsavina

2. A great beauty, if not a great dancer, she created the role of Zobeide in Sheherezade.

Ida Rubenstein

3. He danced a Puppet, a Rose, and a Slave and defined male dancing for half a century.

Vaslav Nijinsky

4. Fokine created The Dying Swan for this most poetic of ballerinas, who soon left the Diaghilev company to pursue a career on her own.

Anna Pavlova

5. He wowed 'em in Paris on the opening night of the Ballets Russe's first season, dancing the leading male role in Fokine's Polovotsian Dances from Prince Igor.

Adolph Bolm

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Ballet Alert Quiz Number 23
February 1, 1999
A Murder Quiz

1. In this ballet, the heroine gave her [step]mother forty whacks. Name the ballet and its choreographer.

Fall River Legend by Agnes DeMille

2. From the same period, this ballet had a troubled hero who, among other things, murdered a prostitute; characters names were taken from Greek mythology. Name the ballet and its choreographer.

Undertow by Antony Tudor.

3. Taken directly from Greek mythology, Birgit Culberg's Medea was in the repertories of several ballet companies in the 1950s, including the New York City Ballet. Who danced the role of Medea (at NYCB)?

Melissa Hayden. (Just a reminder to current City Ballet fans that dramatic ballets once had a place there, too.)

4. In this French hit from the 1940s, the heroine seduces the hero and forces him to commit a murder to prove his love for her. She, too, meets an untimely end at his hand. Name the ballet and its choreographer.

Carmen by Roland Petit.

5. Based on a play by Ionesco, in this ballet a deranged Dancing Master with a thing for pointe shoes does in his hapless pupil. Name the ballet and its choreographer.

The Lesson, by Flemming Flindt.