VAI’s acclaimed series of historic New York City Ballet performances continues with two Balanchine gems from a 1964 Radio Radio-Canada telecast: The Four Temperaments, which premiered in 1946 and is set to a score for orchestra and solo piano that Balanchine commissioned from Paul Hindemith and Ivesiana, danced to four short pieces by Charles Ives, which were premiered shortly after the composer’s death in 1954.

This volume includes a delightful three minute choreographed introduction of the illustrious dancers, set to music, in which Balanchine himself participates. The DVD concludes with Jacques d’Amboise and Tanaquil Le Clerq in a 1955 performance of Afternoon of a Faun, a 1953 work by Jerome Robbins, whom Balanchine had named Associate Artistic Director of New York City Ballet in 1949. In contrast to Nijinsky’s 1912 ballet based on the same music, which depicted a lusty faun and nymphs, the innovative version by Robbins explores the subtle eroticism in the interaction between two dancers, set in a contemporary rehearsal studio.