Episode 137: Hear the Dance: Sonatine

Silas Farley returns with another Hear the Dance conversation, focusing this week on the George Balanchine pas de deux Sonatine, choreographed in 1975 as the opening ballet for the company's Ravel Festival. Repertory Director Christine Redpath shares memories of performing in that festival and of watching Sonatine's original dancers Violette Verdy and the late Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, commemorated in this episode by former Principal Dancer Peter Boal, while Principal Dancer Megan Fairchild describes the ways in which this ballet taught her that a single piece can have "many textures." (56:31)

Written by Silas Farley 
Edited by Emilie Silvestri

Music:
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor Stravinsky
Sonatine for Piano (1905) by Maurice Ravel
All music performed by the New York City Ballet Orchestra, All Sonatine excerpts played by NYCB Solo Pianist Elaine Chelton

Reading List: 
Thirty Years: The New York City Ballet by Lincoln Kirstein
Repertory in Review: Forty Years of The New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds, with an Introduction by Lincoln Kirstein
Balanchine Then and Now Edited by Anne Hogan
Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century by Jennifer Homans
Ravel by Roger Nichols
Maurice Ravel: A Life by Benjamin Ivry
The Cambridge Companion to Ravel by Deborah Mawer
Ballerina: A Biography of Violette Verdy by Victoria Huckenpahler
Violette Verdy by Dominique Delouche and Florence Poudrou