Tarantella

Tarantella is a one-act ballet and pas de deux choreographed by George Balanchine for the New York City Ballet. It was created specifically to showcase the contrasting and complementary abilities of Patricia McBride and Edward Villella, two of the company’s leading dancers. The work premiered on January 7, 1964, at New York City Center in New York, with McBride and Villella in the principal roles. It was the New York City Ballet’s final premiere at City Center before the company moved to the New York State Theater. The ballet is set to Grande Tarantelle by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, in a version rearranged and orchestrated for the stage by Hershy Kay. Its title refers to the tarantella, a fast southern Italian folk dance traditionally associated with Naples and commonly performed with tambourines. Balanchine’s choreography turns those associations into a concentrated display of speed, rhythmic precision, athleticism, and comic stage vitality. The male dancer’s role is especially strenuous, requiring rapid movement, high jumps, and sustained stamina, while the female role combines intricate footwork, musical responsiveness, and quick changes of direction. The production’s visual identity was created by designer Barbara Karinska. The man wears red and black with a gold earring, while the woman appears in red and white. Tambourines are used as both musical and choreographic objects, reinforcing the work’s folk-dance reference without making it a literal reconstruction of a Neapolitan dance. The ballet has also been discussed in relation to August Bournonville and the nineteenth-century ballet tradition, although the extent of Bournonville’s influence on this particular work remains a matter of critical interpretation. Tarantella has remained in the repertory of major ballet organizations beyond its originating company. Performers and companies associated with revivals and productions include Miami City Ballet, founded by Villella, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and The Royal Ballet. In 2018, Royal Ballet dancers Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé performed the work during New York City Ballet’s Balanchine: The City Center Years festival. New York City Ballet also released a 2013 video recording featuring Megan Fairchild and Joaquín De Luz; the recording was later highlighted by the company during its digital response to the coronavirus pandemic. As a cultural property rather than a conventional commercial brand, Tarantella has no separately identified corporate owner, headquarters, financial profile, or consumer-product range. Its recognizable identity rests on the combination of Balanchine’s choreography, Gottschalk’s music in Kay’s arrangement, Karinska’s costumes, the tambourine-centered staging, and the distinctive technical demands placed on its dancers. The work continues to function as a repeatable repertory title that can be presented by licensed or otherwise authorized ballet companies in different markets.

Tarantella was created by George Balanchine in 1964 as a compact pas de deux for Patricia McBride and Edward Villella, principal dancers of the New York City Ballet. Rather than developing the ballet in a straightforward sequence, Balanchine reportedly worked on small sections between rehearsals of other works. Villella only understood the full physical challenge after the separate passages had been assembled into one continuous choreography. The completed work required him to combine exceptionally fast footwork with repeated jumps and sustained movement, making stamina a central part of its performance identity. The ballet premiered on January 7, 1964, at New York City Center. Its premiere was historically significant for the company because it was the New York City Ballet’s final new production at City Center before the company relocated to the New York State Theater. Balanchine used Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s Grande Tarantelle as the musical basis, but the score heard in performance is Hershy Kay’s rearrangement. The title invokes the tarantella, a vigorous Neapolitan folk dance traditionally associated with tambourines and rapid rhythmic motion. Barbara Karinska designed the costumes. The male dancer wears red and black and a gold earring, while the female dancer wears red and white. These choices give the ballet a strong visual signature while maintaining the clarity and economy associated with a short dance work. Tambourines are handled by the dancers and contribute both sound and stage action. The result is a ballet that refers to folk-dance imagery but is fundamentally a highly refined theatrical display of classical technique. Critical discussion has connected Tarantella with older European dance traditions, including the work of Danish choreographer August Bournonville. The precise extent of that influence is debatable, but the ballet is often understood as one of Balanchine’s works that pays homage to Bournonville or to related nineteenth-century traditions of buoyant, footwork-driven dancing. After its creation, Tarantella entered the wider repertory of companies beyond the New York City Ballet. Miami City Ballet, founded by Edward Villella, performed the work, as did Pacific Northwest Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and The Royal Ballet. Its continued presentation by different companies reflects the work’s portability as a pas de deux: it requires no large narrative structure and can be programmed as a concentrated virtuoso number, while still demanding dancers with considerable musicality, speed, coordination, and endurance. The ballet has also been preserved through recorded performance. New York City Ballet released a video recording in 2013 featuring Megan Fairchild and Joaquín De Luz. During the coronavirus pandemic, the company used the recording in its online or digital response programming. In 2018, the work was presented by Royal Ballet dancers Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé as part of New York City Ballet’s Balanchine: The City Center Years festival, linking the later performance to the location and institutional history of the original premiere. Tarantella is therefore best understood not as a food or consumer-goods brand, but as a named performing-arts work whose identity is reproduced through stage productions, repertory programming, and recordings. Its enduring profile derives from the collaboration among Balanchine, Gottschalk, Kay, Karinska, and the dancers who have carried the choreography into subsequent generations.

• 2020

  Digital pandemic-era presentation

  [1]Tarantella (ballet)en.wikipedia.org

  New York City Ballet highlighted the 2013 recording during its coronavirus-response digital programming.

• 2018

  Balanchine: The City Center Years festival performance

  [1]Tarantella (ballet)en.wikipedia.org

  Royal Ballet dancers Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé performed the work at New York City Ballet’s festival.

• 2013

  New York City Ballet video recording

  [1]Tarantella (ballet)en.wikipedia.org

  New York City Ballet released a recording featuring Megan Fairchild and Joaquín De Luz.

• 1964

  World premiere

  [1]Tarantella (ballet)en.wikipedia.org

  Tarantella premiered on January 7 at New York City Center, performed by Patricia McBride and Edward Villella and choreographed by George Balanchine.

• 1964

  Final New York City Center premiere for New York City Ballet

  [1]Tarantella (ballet)en.wikipedia.org

  The ballet became the New York City Ballet’s last premiere at City Center before the company moved to the New York State Theater.

A high-energy classical ballet showpiece positioned within the George Balanchine repertory, emphasizing virtuoso technique, speed, musicality, athletic jumps, tambourine work, and theatrical color.

• Ballet and pas de deux · 1964

  Tarantella

  A fast, technically demanding pas de deux by George Balanchine, created for Patricia McBride and Edward Villella. It is danced to Hershy Kay’s rearrangement of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s Grande Tarantelle and incorporates tambourines, rapid footwork, athletic jumps, and vivid red-and-black and red-and-white costumes designed by Barbara Karinska.

• Video recording · 2013

  Tarantella performance recording

  A New York City Ballet video recording released in 2013 and featuring Megan Fairchild and Joaquín De Luz. The recording was later used in the company’s digital programming during the coronavirus pandemic.

• 1964

  Creation and premiere of TarantellaProduct launch

  Background

  Balanchine created the work to display the speed, jumping ability, musicality, and stamina of Patricia McBride and Edward Villella.

  Action taken

  The New York City Ballet premiered the completed pas de deux at New York City Center on January 7, using Kay’s arrangement of Gottschalk’s music and Karinska’s costumes.

  Aftermath

  The work became a recurring repertory piece and was subsequently performed by several major ballet companies.

  Source

1. 1Tarantella (ballet)en.wikipedia.org