Union Jack (ballet)

This article is about Balanchine's 1976 ballet. For other uses (Union jack redirects to Union flag), see Union flag (disambiguation).

Union Jack is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to traditional British tunes, hornpipe melodies and music-hall songs, ca. 1890–1914, adapted by Hershy Kay. The premiere took place on 13 May 1976, at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, to honor British heritage in the United States its bicentennial with costumes by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, original lighting by Ronald Bates and current lighting by Mark Stanley. At the finale the ensemble spells out "God Save the Queen" in semaphore code and the Union Jack unfurls. Principal dancer Jock Soto included an excerpt from Union Jack in his farewell performance in June 2005.

Music

The music includes Scottish military tattoos and folk-dance forms; a music-hall pas de deux for the costermonger Pearly King and Queen; hornpipes, sea songs, work chants and jigs.

selections

"Keel Row"
"Caledonian Hunt's Delight"

"Regimental Drum Variations"
"Amazing Grace"

"A Hundred Pipers"
"The Sunshine of Your Smile"
the Scottish theme from Händel's Water Music

Costermonger pas de deux

"Dance wi' My Daddy"

"The Night the Floor Fell In"
"Our Lodger's Such a Nice Young Man"

"Following in Father's Footsteps"
"A Tavern in the Town"

finale

"Rule Britannia!"

Casts

original

NYCB revivals

2008 Dancers' Choice benefit

MacDonald of Sleat

Savannah Lowery ^[1]

NYCB ensemble

Footnotes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 All performers in Dancers' Choice appeared for the first time in the rôles which they danced.

References

Playbill, New York City Ballet, Friday, 27 June 2008

Articles

NY Times by Anna Kisselgoff, 13 May 1976
Sunday NY Times by Clive Barnes, 23 May 1976

NY Times by Gia Kourlas, 25 December 2005
NY Times by Tobi Tobias, 12 February 2006

Reviews

NY Times by Clive Barnes, 14 May 1976
NY Times by Jennifer Dunning, 10 January 1980
NY Times by Jack Anderson, 21 June 2005
NY Times by Alastair Macaulay, 30 June 2008

External links

Ballets by George Balanchine

A la Françaix A Midsummer Night's Dream Agon Allegro Brillante Apollo (stagings) Le baiser de la fée Le Bal Ballade Ballo della Regina Bayou Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Bourrée fantasque Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet Bugaku Chaconne (stagings) Le chant du rossignol Circus Polka Clarinade Concertino Concerto Barocco Coppélia Cortège Hongrois Divertimento Brillante Divertimento from “Le Baiser De La Fée” Divertimento No. 15 Don Quixote Donizetti Variations Duo Concertant Élégie L'enfant et les sortilèges Episodes (stagings) Etude for Piano The Firebird The Four Temperaments (stagings) Garland Dance Gounod Symphony Haieff Divertimento Harlequinade Hungarian Gypsy Airs Ivesiana Jeu de cartes Jewels (stagings) Kammermusik No. 2 Liebeslieder Walzer (stagings) Meditation Metamorphoses Metastaseis and Pithoprakta Monumentum pro Gesualdo (stagings) Movements for Piano and Orchestra Mozartiana Noah and the Flood The Nutcracker Orpheus Pas de Dix Pas de Trois (Glinka) Pas de Trois (Minkus) Pavane The Prodigal Son Pulcinella Ragtime I Ragtime II Raymonda Variations Requiem Canticles Robert Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze Scherzo à la russe Scotch Symphony Serenade The Seven Deadly Sins Slaughter on Tenth Avenue La Sonnambula Sonatine La source Square Dance Stars and Stripes The Steadfast Tin Soldier Stravinsky Violin Concerto Swan Lake Sylvia Pas de Deux Symphonie Concertante Symphony in C Symphony in Three Movements Tango Tarantella (stagings) Theme and Variations Le tombeau de Couperin Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 Tzigane Union Jack La valse Valse-Fantaisie Variations Variations for Orchestra Variations Pour une Porte et un Soupir Vienna Waltzes Walpurgisnacht Ballet Western Symphony (stagings) Who Cares? (stagings) Zenobia

List of ballets by George Balanchine

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