17-20 May

In The Four Temperaments, choreography by George Balanchine, and Verklarte Nacht, choreography by Susanne Linke. Performed in agreement with the George Balanchine Trust, The Four Temperaments were created by Balanchine for the opening programme of Ballet Society, the forerunner of New York City Ballet. It is one of his earliest experimental works, fusing classical steps with a lean and angular style. The ballet is inspired by the mediaeval belief that human beings are made up of four different humours that determine a person's temperament. Each temperament was associated with one of the four classical elements (earth, air, water, and fire), which in turn were the basis of the four humours (black bile, blood, phlegm, and bile) that composed the body. In a healthy body, the humours were in balance. But if one became predominant it determined an individual's temperament. Thus a person dominated by black bile was melancholic (gloomily pensive), by blood was sanguinic (headstrong and passionate), by phlegm was phlegmatic (unemotional and passive), and by bile was choleric (bad-tempered and angry). The titles of the ballet's four movements - "Melancholic," "Sanguinic," "Phlegmatic," and "Choleric" - reflect these principles. Transfigured Night, on the music by Schoenberg, has been especially commissioned for the company to the award-winning German dancer and choreographer Susanne Linke, who brings together both the heritage of the expressionist German dance from the between-wars period and the contemporary German dance-theatre.