Who Cares? is a plotless, one-act ballet George Balanchine set to seventeen George Gershwin songs, orchestrated by Hershy Kay, made for New York City Ballet and premiered February 5, 1970 at the New York State Theater. It is built in two halves — a large ensemble section followed by a section for four principal dancers — and stands in the catalogue as Balanchine's fullest engagement with American popular song within a classical framework.
What it contains
- Balanchine Method · The whole ballet — Balanchine's own choreography throughout, described by an original cast member as pointe technique carrying jazz-derived musicality rather than a conventional jazz-dance treatment of Gershwin. Source: "he put it on pointe – it's sort of like a tap dance on pointe."
- Neoclassical Ballet · The whole ballet — Classical pointe vocabulary fused with syncopated, jazz-age musicality across the ensemble suite and the principal solos and duets, rather than narrative or purely academic classicism. Source: "You think it's so unlike Balanchine, it's so jazzy."
- Vaudeville Jazz · Part One, the ensemble suite of the first eight songs — Vaudeville-derived stage vocabulary — hoofer-style stepping and showgirl posing — worked into an otherwise classical pointe ensemble. Source: "staged as a suite of classical dances... with some hoofer steps and showgirl poses."
What is danced
The first half sets fifteen women and five men through eight Gershwin numbers; critic Zoe Anderson described it as staged 'as a suite of classical dances... with some hoofer steps and showgirl poses,' meaning the corps work reads as pointe-shoe classicism laced with vaudeville-derived accents rather than literal jazz dance. The second half narrows to three women and one man: each woman gets a solo, the man partners each in turn, there is a quartet, and the full cast returns for a finale built on 'I Got Rhythm.' The title number is a pas de deux, the first section Balanchine made for the ballet, originated by Karin von Aroldingen and Jacques d'Amboise. Patricia McBride's solo to 'Fascinatin' Rhythm' was demonstrated step-by-step by the 65-year-old Balanchine himself, and she drilled it against a tape recorder until she could dance it 'without counting.'
Context
By 1970 Balanchine had spent decades building a body of work that treated American vernacular music — marches, ragtime, and now Broadway-era song — as legitimate material for pointe-shoe technique, and Who Cares? is one of the clearest late statements of that project: a company member's own account frames it against the expectation that Gershwin's music would simply be handed a 'jazz ballet... like Broadway,' with the surprise being that Balanchine instead 'put it on pointe.' The ballet also reflects Balanchine's personal history with Gershwin, whom he had worked with on the 1938 film The Goldwyn Follies before Gershwin's early death; Balanchine said the songbook Gershwin gave him directly generated the ballet's structure of solos, variations, and pas de deux.
Staging history
The score was incomplete at the 1970 premiere — only the opening and closing numbers were orchestrated, so pianist Gordon Boelzner played most of the ballet live, and one number ('Clap Yo' Hands') used a 1926 Gershwin recording rather than a live performer; the full orchestration was finished by May 1970 but the Gershwin recording stayed in use. 'Clap Yo' Hands' itself was dropped from the ballet in 1976 and restored in 2010. A New York skyline backdrop by Jo Mielziner was added in November 1970, and the Karinska costumes have been redesigned more than once since. The ballet has since passed to English National Ballet, Zürich Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Sarasota Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Ballet Chicago, and the School of American Ballet's workshop repertory, as well as being excerpted on Baryshnikov's touring programs and multiple PBS broadcasts.
How to watch it
Watch for the contrast between the two halves: the opening ensemble reads as a suite of classical dances carrying vaudeville-derived accents (hoofer steps, showgirl poses) inside pointe technique, while the second half strips down to intimate, 'late-night' partnering for the four principals. Listen for how the phrasing tracks Gershwin's syncopation rather than smoothing it into conventional balletic counts — this is the quality von Aroldingen called 'tap dance on pointe.'
Structure
- "Who Cares?" pas de deuxThe title pas de deux, the first section Balanchine choreographed for the ballet, originated by Karin von Aroldingen and Jacques d'Amboise.
- "Fascinatin' Rhythm" soloA solo made quickly for Patricia McBride, demonstrated in full by Balanchine himself and rehearsed by McBride against a tape recorder.
Structure read from an encyclopaedia article, not from a libretto or score we hold. Confirm against a programme before treating the numbering as authoritative.
Credits
- composer: George Gershwin