New York City Ballet Debuts "Agon"

On December 1, 1957, the New York City Ballet debuted Agon, a collaboration between composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer George Balanchine.

The "Pas de deux" choreographed by Balanchine, and danced by Diana Adams and Arthur Mitchell to the music of Stravinsky became a defining moment in ballet history.

Both Russian émigrés, Stravinsky and Balanchine fled their homeland after the turmoil of the Revolution and eventually settled in the United States. Stravinsky dedicated the ballet to Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, founders of the New York City Ballet.

New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein with musical director Leon Barzin and with founding choreographers Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.