Ballet
The Four Temperaments
This is one of those pieces that basically rewired what ballet could look like. Balanchine took an old idea about the four humors that supposedly shape human personality and turned it into pure movement, no story attached. It's lean, strange, a little jazzy, and it still feels startlingly modern almost 80 years later.
Fast facts
- Composer
- Paul Hindemith
- Choreographer
- George Balanchine
- Premiere
- 1946, New York
- Structure
- One act
- Running time
- About 30 minutes
The story
A plotless, abstract work built on the old medieval notion of four temperaments: melancholic, sanguinic, phlegmatic, and choleric. After a short three-part theme, each temperament gets its own variation danced in simple practice clothes against a bare stage. There's no narrative, but each section has a distinct mood and attack, building to a surging, off-kilter finale that keeps bending classical shapes into something angular and new.
What The Four Temperaments is famous for
- Launching the sleek, plotless Balanchine style
- Dancers in plain practice clothes on a bare stage
- Hindemith's spiky, memorable score
- That driving, lift-filled finale
Companies that perform The Four Temperaments
The Four Temperaments is in the repertoire of companies including New York City Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre.
Good to know
Frequently Asked Questions
Does The Four Temperaments tell a story?
No. It's an abstract, plotless ballet. The four temperaments are moods and qualities of movement, not characters in a plot.
Why are the dancers wearing such plain clothes?
The stripped-down practice-clothes look was Balanchine's choice to keep the focus entirely on the dancing and the structure of the piece, with nothing decorative to distract from the bodies and the music.
Who wrote the music?
Paul Hindemith composed the score, originally commissioned by Balanchine himself. It's built as a theme with four variations, which maps directly onto the ballet's structure.
Who composed The Four Temperaments?
The Four Temperaments was composed by Paul Hindemith.
How long is The Four Temperaments?
The Four Temperaments runs about 30 minutes.