La Sylphide will always have an essential place in classical dance. It is the first ballet in which the ballerina used pointe work to suggest the weightlessness of an apparition. It was also the first time this new technique was poetically integrated into a compelling story. A sylphide is a wayward spirit of the air, mischievous and charming and unpossessable. In La Sylphide, a sylph charms the young man James, who deserts his bride on their wedding day to chase the creature into the woods. Choreographed in 1832 by Filippo Taglioni, the ballet was tailor-made for the star of the moment, his daughter Marie Taglioni. It was a sensation. But in 1836, a better version was made by August Bournonville, and that classic is the one on this program. It’s paired with George Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony, a concentrated version of the story that is much shorter—a sort of tone poem of La Sylphide. It’s a beauty too, and demonstrates Balanchine’s gift for working narrative into choreography that has dispensed with plot. A very special program. —Laura Jacobs