Exploring his fascination with the music of Chopin, Robbins created three vastly contrasting sets of lovers, from innocent to impetuous, who meet beneath a midnight sky.

After the enormous popularity of Dances at a Gathering in 1969, Jerome Robbins built on his love affair with Chopin’s piano works with In the Night.  While the earlier ballet primarily uses mazurkas, waltzes, and études, In the Night, which premiered in 1970, conjures up a post-dusk scenario to four of the composer’s nocturnes. Choreographed for three couples of distinct personality, the ballet uses the music as a jumping-off point to explore subtle dance dramas. The Nocturne Op. 27, No. 1 takes on a stately quality before melting into lyricism. Nocturnes Op. 55, No. 1 and No. 2 are, respectively, bittersweet, and tempestuous in their melodies. The final piece, Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 uses the rondo form, but in a tender, almost ethereal andante.

Performed with an onstage cellist, A Suite of Dances is a solo tour de force for a male dancer that is at once witty and pensive.

Towards the end of his life, Jerome Robbins was especially inspired by his love for Bach’s music, and he choreographed three of his late works to Bach. A Suite of Dances is set to the Six Suites for Solo Cello, composed when Bach served as Kappellmeister in Cöthen and which cover a broad range of emotional territory. In the early 1990s, when Mikhail Baryshnikov expressed interest in working with Robbins again, the choreographer called to say he had "an idea for a little dance." This charming, naturalistic ballet was the result. In it, the solo dancer and cellist act as partners, playing off each other with easy-going camaraderie.

The quintessential piano ballet, Dances at a Gathering distills the spectrum of human interaction into the most natural of movements, a landmark for its invention, virtuosity, and constantly shifting emotions.

Dances at a Gathering, which premiered in 1969, heralded Jerome Robbins’ return to New York City Ballet after a 13-year absence. Inspired by Chopin’s piano music, Robbins quickly began choreographing in the rehearsal studio. When he showed 25 minutes of choreography to Balanchine, he said, “Make more, make it like popcorn,” pretending to pop popcorn into his mouth. The work eventually expanded to an hour in length with a cast of ten dancers.

Chopin’s mazurkas, waltzes, and études, groundbreaking at the time of their composition, are rooted in the Slavic character of his Polish homeland, yet still convey the elegance of Paris, where they were created. Robbins ultimately used 18 of Chopin’s piano pieces, creating dances for various duets, solos, and larger groupings.

“The ballet stays and exists in the time of the music and its work,” wrote Robbins. “Nothing is out of it, I believe; all gestures and moods, steps, etc. are part of the fabric of the music’s time and its meaning to me.”