Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes - ’Allegro brillante’

This is another George Balanchine treasure - his ’Allegro brillante’, choreographed to Tchaikovsky’s Third Piano Concerto. Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes were the lead dancers at the premier of the ballet given by the New York City Ballet on 1st March 1956 at the City Center of Music and Drama. And we have the same lead dancers on this television performance of 1966. Tallchief characterised the work as “an expansive Russian romanticism.“ And Balanchine said of the ballet “It contains everyth