Diamonds
Choreography: George Balanchine
Music: Peter I. Tchaikovsky
Original Costume Design: Karinska
Lighting Design: Trad A Burns
Staged by Judith Fugate
Balanchine choreographed Diamonds, the third section of George Balanchine’s three-part masterpiece Jewels, to Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 in D major, Op. 29. Tchaikovsky composed this work in 1875, just before starting to write Swan Lake. It is the only one of his six symphonies in a major key, and it is the only one to have five movements, with two scherzos setting off the central Andante elegiaco. Balanchine, however, decided to omit the symphony’s first movement, deeming it unsuitable for dancing.
Notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory index.
Ballet premiere: April 13, 1967, New York City Ballet, New York State Theatre.
Kansas City Ballet premiere: April 6, 2018
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City, Missouri