Multimedia Review

Music Dances: Balanchine Choreographs Stravinsky. Nancy McDill, piano; Gabriel Schaff, violin, percussion; New York City Ballet, dancers; Stephanie Jordan, project director; Virginia Brooks, video director; Delia Peters, producer; Nancy Reynolds, executive producer. 2002. The George Balanchine Foundation, New York. VHS (96 minutes). Sales of this video are restricted to educational institutions; it is not available for purchase by individuals.

It is both a paradox and entirely fitting that American ballet (and modern ballet in general) was principally founded on the collaboration of two Russian immigrants: the composer Igor Stravinsky and the choreographer George Balanchine, who had first met in Paris in the 1920s via Serge Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. The two found their way separately to the United States, and Balanchine, in particular, spent the majority of his productive life here. Much of his key choreography was made, as he said, "on the floor" of Stravinsky's music, and if Balanchine's choreography can be summed up in one word, the word most often used is musicality. The intimate relationship between the music and the dance is a hallmark of their collaboration.