en:Betty Freeman — Polish Music Center · Public domain
Dance Preludes (1955)
Dance Preludes is a short plotless ballet made by Miriam Mahdaviani for New York City Ballet, set to Witold Lutosławski's Dance Preludes. It was created as a pièce d'occasion — a one-off commissioned piece for a specific gala rather than a repertory-anchored premiere — for the Dancers' Emergency Fund Benefit on 24 February 1991 at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
What is danced
The article does not describe the choreography or movement vocabulary of Dance Preludes at all: no steps, holds, technique, or staging directions are given. What can be established is structural rather than kinetic: the original cast lists exactly two dancers, Wendy Whelan and Albert Evans, indicating the work was built as (or centred on) a duet. Beyond that, nothing in the source supports any claim about pointe work, partnering, or stylistic idiom, and none should be inferred.
Context
The piece was made in 1991, part of the post-Balanchine era at New York City Ballet, when company members and former dancers such as Mahdaviani were being given opportunities to choreograph, often for occasional or benefit programs rather than mainstage seasons. It shared its premiere bill with core Balanchine repertory (Serenade, the Theme and Variations pas de deux, Stars and Stripes) and with new work by other company choreographers, situating it squarely inside NYCB's internal culture of dancer-choreographers using benefit galas as a testing ground.
How to watch it
Listen for the interplay between the wind quintet and strings in Lutosławski's nonet scoring, since the ballet uses that specific 1959 arrangement rather than the more familiar clarinet-and-piano original. Attend to the duet built for Wendy Whelan and Albert Evans as the work's original interpreters, and to its place on the bill as a occasional companion piece to established Balanchine repertory rather than a standalone repertory work.
Credits
- composer: Witold Lutosławski