The Cage

Music concerto in D for String Orchestra, “Basler” (1946) by Igor Stravinsky

Choreography by Jerome Robbins (1951)

This original Novice costume has much of the metallic thread missing from the veins of the piece. A dancer who had an artistic streak was invited by Blanchine to help design the costumes with Jerome Robbins. Censors for televisions requested that NYCB create unitard versions in order to keep so much “dancer flesh” from showing. The Cage was nearly banned in the Netherlands.

In 2015 New York City Ballet commissioned a cuff bracelet used the this image as the inspiration. The forward thinking and almost alien and provocative foray into the Darwinian insect world is more than evident in the costume design. The back of the costume is of most interest to me, in that it speaks most adeptly to the creeping crawling sense of an insect. Robbins chose to use insects to portray what he had originally conceived of as a production about Amazonian women not knowing their own strength. He turned to the world of bugs in order to pull a feral quality through all of the movements suddenly available to him. The choreography is staccato and wild, and the dancers who get a chance to look “ugly” through hairstyles and choreography love to perform it.