Serenade is the first masterpiece that George Balanchine made on American soil. The year was 1934, the place was White Plains, New York, and the music was Tchaikovsky, his Serenade for Strings. Balanchine set the piece on his students; he wanted to move them from the rote work of the classroom to the drama of the stage. They are costumed in long tulle skirts, pale blue wisps of twilight that suggest ballet’s sisterhoods of sylphs and Wilis. Serenade so brims with beautiful patterns, images, and events that you can see it a hundred times and still feel you’re just discovering it. American Contemporary Ballet pairs this wonder with a new ballet from ACB director Lincoln Jones. The music is newly composed by the prodigy Alma Deutscher, who lives in Vienna. The two mapped out the score together and the result is The Euterpides, a ballet about the ancient Greek muse of music, Euterpe, and her daughters, who represent musical elements such as arpeggio, staccato, and breath. It’s yet another sisterhood of classical dance! —Laura Jacobs