Graduation Ball

Graduation Ball is a ballet in one act choreographed by David Lichine to music composed by Johann Strauss II and arranged by Antal Doráti. With a scenario devised by Lichine and with scenery and costumes designed by Alexandre Benois, it was first presented by the Original Ballet Russe at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, Australia, on 1 March 1940.

The ballet is set in a fashionable Viennese finishing school for girls during the 1840s. The headmistress has invited the cadets of the city's military academy to attend a ball celebrating the graduation of the senior class. The senior and junior girls have planned a series of divertissements as the evening's entertainment and are greatly excited by the event. Flirtations, exuberant dances, and a secret romance ensue.

Besides the principal couple, Graduation Ball required a large cast of soloists and corps de ballet dancers. The Headmistress was played, en travestie, by Borislav Runanine, a character dancer with the company. The Old General, at the head of the platoon of cadets, was portrayed by Igor Schwezoff. As the principal ballerina, Tatiana Riabouchinska was the leader of a group of Junior Girls in a role sometimes known as the Romantic Girl or the Good Girl, and one of her group, Tatiana Leskova, took the featured role of the Pigtail Girl, a tomboyish cut-up sometimes called the Naughty Girl. David Lichine danced the principal male role as the bashful leader of the Junior Cadets in a role sometimes known as the First Cadet or the Shy Cadet.

In the divertissements, Riabouchinska acted as Mistress of Ceremony, introducing the performers of the following numbers:

The curtain opens to reveal a formal drawing room. Soon, groups of Junior and Senior Girls enter to inspect the premises and begin excitedly to prepare for the ball. The Headmistress comes to make sure that all is in order. The Old General arrives, leading a platoon of cadets. At first the cadets and the girls are timid, standing apart, but the Pigtail Girl breaks the ice, and the young people soon begin to dance with each other. The Mistress of Ceremony introduces the divertissements, which are interrupted by an "Impromptu Dance" by the Pigtail Girl. When the entertainment has concluded, the Headmistress sends her students and the cadets off stage, to have dinner.

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