When it comes to ballet, the Poles are best known for what they contributed to the Russian enterprise: social dances that spiced up the imperial spectacle and Vaslav Nijinsky, plus his sister, Bronislava. So this Polish National Ballet program featuring Polish choreographers, a Polish librettist, and a Polish composer is a novelty and a treat. Fredriana takes its name from the beloved 19th-century fabulist and playwright Count Aleksander Fredro, two of whose love-laced comedies of errors supply the plots for the program’s two one-acts. The scores derive from the 19th-century “father of Polish opera,” Stanisław Moniuszko. The choreographer Anna Hop grew up inside the Polish National Ballet as a professional dancer, then dancemaker, while the late dance-theater maven Conrad Drzewiecki dominated the Polish scene from the 1960s, when ballet people could be as shaggy, hip, and electric as everyone else. For this 1975 ballet, though, he is properly folkloric. —Apollinaire Scherr
The Arts Intel Report
Polish National Ballet: Fredriana
Explore More
Jan 23–26, 2025