Both created in 1947, these ballets emerged from the same city but represent vastly different choreographic styles. They embed a pivotal moment when New York became a crucible for innovation in dance.
What is it about this particular decade that led to such enduring masterpieces? And did these two giants of 20th-century choreography know about each other’s artistic breakthroughs?
In 1947, George Balanchine premiered Theme and Variations at City Center in New York. Set to Tchaikovsky’s orchestral suite, this dazzling performance was, as Balanchine put it, an attempt “to evoke that great period in classical dancing when Russian ballet flourished with the aid of Tchaikovsky’s music.” With sparkling tutus, sweeping patterns and fiendishly complex choreography, this showpiece for 13 couples combines technical virtuosity with a precise musicality that would become a hallmark of Balanchine’s neoclassical style. Critics hailed it as a triumph, applauding its sharp technique, musicality, and classical elegance.
Meanwhile, just a few miles away, Martha Graham premiered Errand into the Maze at the Ziegfeld Theatre. Drawing inspiration from the Greek myth of Ariadne, Theseus and the Minotaur, Graham turned the story on its axis by putting Ariadne at its centre and reimagining her journey through the labyrinth as a symbolic voyage inward. “There is an errand into the maze of the heart’s darkness in order to face and do battle with the Creature of Fear,” she noted. With a visceral solo and duet, a set designed by Isamu Noguchi, and a haunting score by Gian Carlo Menotti, Errand solidified Graham’s position as the leading voice in American modern dance.
George Balanchine arrived in the United States from Europe in 1933, thanks to an invitation from arts patron Lincoln Kirstein. Kirstein had long envisioned creating a world-class ballet company in the U.S., and he saw Balanchine — already a celebrated choreographer and former Ballets Russes artist — as the person to realise that vision. After a series of educational and performance initiatives, Balanchine co-founded the School of American Ballet in 1934 and Ballet Society (later the New York City Ballet) in 1946. New York provided fertile ground for his ideas, attracting dancers, musicians, and designers eager to shape a new American identity in the arts.
By 1947, Martha Graham had been a fixture in New York for decades. After dancing with the Los Angeles-based Denishawn company in the 1920s, she broke away to form her own company in 1926, living and working out of a tiny Carnegie Hall studio in midtown Manhattan. By the 1940s, Graham had firmly established herself as a leading figure in modern dance, teaching at her own school and working with a close circle of collaborators including composer Louis Horst and sculptor Isamu Noguchi. The post-war period provided her with the platform and resources to further develop a movement language grounded in psychological depth and physical tension.
New York in 1947 was buzzing with post-war artistic ambition. It wasn’t just ballet and modern dance that were undergoing transformations — composers, visual artists, writers and designers were all coming together to redefine American culture.
Jerome Robbins, Assistant Artistic Director of the New York City Ballet, was on the cusp of redefining American musical theatre with works like Fancy Free (1944) and soon West Side Story (1957). Composer Leonard Bernstein was starting to make a name for himself with the New York Philharmonic. Meanwhile, painter Jackson Pollock was producing some of his most famous drip paintings in a studio just across the river in Long Island. Merce Cunningham was beginning his choreographic journey, performing alongside Martha Graham and creating his first major pieces, including The Seasons for Balanchine’s Ballet Society, featuring music by John Cage and set designs by Isamu Noguchi.
Across various art forms, boundaries were being pushed. In the world of theatre, Tennessee Williams had just premiered A Streetcar Named Desire. In literature, voices such as Ralph Ellison and Truman Capote were part of a new American literary landscape. Dance was not an isolated art but a vital part of a larger movement of innovation and exploration.
In this light, Theme and Variations and Errand into the Maze reveal two sides of the same coin: one a celebration of classical form, the other a deep dive into emotional complexity. Both works challenge their dancers – and the audience – to venture into uncharted territory.
Even though Balanchine and Graham came from different traditions, they were both reinventing their art forms during a time of significant cultural transformation, and they were certainly aware of each other. Their paths would officially cross in 1959 when they shared the stage — though not the choreography — in Episodes, a joint project for New York City Ballet. Graham’s contribution, performed by her own company, was a modernist meditation on the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, and other historical female figures, set to Anton Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra. The movement was emotionally charged and theatrical, with a central solo (for her principal dancer Paul Taylor) depicting the ghostly presence of a tortured male figure. The choreography of Episodes I revealed Graham’s continued interest in mythic and historical themes, this time seen through a lens of regal constraint and doomed legacy.
Balanchine’s Episodes II, performed by New York City Ballet, was a purely abstract ballet divided into four sections, also set to music by Webern. Balanchine explored Webern’s sparse, pointillistic soundscape through movement that was clean, geometric, and emotionally detached. The choreography focused on formal structure, musicality, and visual rhythm, reflecting his fascination with musical architecture. One of the most notable moments was a solo Balanchine created for Paul Taylor — the Graham company dancer performing in Episodes I — marking a rare crossover between the two worlds. Taylor danced an angular, expressionless solo, arms pinned behind him, walking in mechanical patterns — a striking contrast to Graham’s emotionalism.
Fast forward nearly eighty years, and English National Ballet is bringing Theme and Variations and Errand into the Maze. together in one programme. As part of R:Evolution, this pairing invites audiences to experience the post-war era through two groundbreaking perspectives – to appreciate the pointe shoe and the bare foot, the tutu and the sculptural set, as equally revolutionary.
Looking back at 1947 is about recognising how daring ideas can influence the future of dance. In the rest of the R:Evolution programme, we follow a choreographic thread leading us to William Forsythe and David Dawson, who continued to evolve the language of ballet while drawing inspiration from the revolutionaries that came before them.
Join us as these iconic works return to the stage. R:Evolution is coming to Sadler’s Wells from 1-11 October.