71 Best Ballets, Ranked

George Balanchine, co-founder and founding choreographer, created the three-act ballet Jewels for the New York City Ballet. The ballet premiered Thursday, April 13, 1967, at the New York State Theater. Peter Harvey designed the sets. Ronald Bates handled the lighting. Jewels became the first full-length abstract ballet. It features three linked movements: Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds, separated by intermissions. Viewers see three separate ballets connected by their jewel-colored costumes. Balanchine stated, "The ballet had nothing to do with jewels. The dancers are just"

Anastasia features music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, plus a book by Terrence McNally. The musical uses the 1997 film's story: the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, who claims she escaped her family's execution.

Anna Karenina is a 1992 theater production of a play by Peter Kellogg.

The Red Shoes is a Broadway musical. Marsha Norman wrote the book. Norman and Bob Merrill (credited as Paul Stryker) wrote the lyrics. Jule Styne composed the music. Powell and Pressburger's film inspired this story of a young ballerina performing an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale.

The Lady of the Camellias is a 1963 theater production of a play.

William Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew, perhaps between 1590 and 1592. The play starts with an Induction where a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Christopher Sly into thinking he is a nobleman. The nobleman then stages the play for Sly's amusement. The main plot shows the courtship of Petruchio and Katherina, the headstrong, stubborn shrew. Katherina starts as an unwilling partner, but Petruchio changes her with various psychological tactics.