Dance and Performing Arts

It was the first time that ballet and modern dance were presented on the same stage. The year was 1959, and ballet’s great twentieth century innovator, George Balanchine, artistic director and founding genius of New York City Ballet, reached a hand across the divide between classical ballet and modern dance. He invited Martha Graham to co-choreograph a two-part work called Episodes with him.

Using the same music, they would each choreograph a dance. The two dances would give the audience a glimpse of how two artists working in different dance traditions used the same music, and how these results would look danced one after the other.
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Dance has existed from time immemorial. It has been an integral part of celebrations and rituals, a means of communication with gods and among humans, and a basic source of enjoyment and beauty.

Dance is a fundamental element of human behavior and has evolved over the years from primitive movement of the earliest civilizations to traditional ethnic or folk styles, to the classical ballet and modern dance genres popular today. The term dance is broad and, therefore, not limited to the genres noted above.
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