George Jackson emailed with a comment about the lineage between Balanchine’s Symphony in C and Lifar’s Suite en Blanc that I discuss in the new Ballet Review:
“In terms of tracing sources, it may have been minor or forgotten works that influenced those that have survived. Max Glasemann’s ‘Chopiniana’ and Josef Hassreiter’s ‘Chopin’s Dances’ preceded the first version of Fokine’s Chopiniana/Sylphides by only a few years and similarities are striking. Likewise, there were ‘suites’ by such as Ivan Clustine, Nicola Guerra and Leo Staats in regular repertory and being done at school recitals in Paris that have technical and formal resemblance to Lifar’s ‘Suite en blanc’ and Balanchine’s ‘Palais de crystal.'”