Serenade (ballet)

Serenade (ballet)

Serenade is a ballet by George Balanchine, subsequently co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet, to Tschaikovsky's 1880 Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48. Students of the School of American Ballet gave the first performance of Serenade on Sunday, June 10, 1934, on the Felix M. Warburg estate in White Plains, N.Y., where Mozartiana had been danced the previous day. It was the first ballet that Balanchine choreographed in America. It was then presented by the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet on December 6 at the Avery Memorial Theatre of the Wadsworth Atheneum to return the favor of sponsoring Balanchine's immigration to America. The official premiere took place March 1, 1935, with the American Ballet, at the Adelphi Theatre, New York, conducted by Sandor Harmati.

NYCB principal dancer Philip Neal chose to include Serenade in his farewell performance, Sunday, June 13, 2010.

The blue tutus used in Serenade inspired the naming of the Balanchine crater on the planet Mercury.