March 1, 1935, American Ballet, Adelphi Theater, New York

What an amazing experience! I just saw Balanchine’s new work Serenade on it’s opening weekend at American Ballet Theatre. After Diaghileve’s death in 1929 I wasn’t sure if Balanchine’s work would continue, or be as popular. Moving to the United States was a risk but worked out well for Balanchine. Serenade is the first original ballet George Balanchine created in America and is surely going to become a timeless classic. Balanchine began the ballet as a lesson in stage technique and it then morphed into a ballet to Tchaikovsky’s beautiful score Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48. Of course I paid particular attention the costumes. Designed by Jean Lurçat, all the females were in the same costume which was a light blue camisole leotard with long tulle skirt attached. Although the legs were covered the tulle was sheer and flowed beautifully with the movement. When the dancers would jump or kick their legs the skirt would move with them and then linger as they floated back down into place. It was gorgeous and really added something special to the piece. Another interesting aspect to this ballet regarding costumes was that all the women, even the soloists, looked the same. This uniformity lulled the audience and when a soloist would break away from the corps it came as a wonderful surprise that caught the audiences the attention.