What Ballet is Graduation Ball From (Plus Essential Artistry Tips)

The Royal Danish Ballet performing Graduation Ball, March 1954

The Junior Girl variation from Graduation Ball shows up constantly at ballet competitions—and for good reason. It's charming, technically challenging, and gives young dancers a chance to shine. But here's what often gets lost: this variation isn't just a showcase for développés and gorgeous feet. It's a character piece set in a very specific world.

Understanding that world transforms the variation from "impressive flexibility display" into something audiences actually remember.

The Ballet: A Viennese Finishing School in the 1840s

Graduation Ball was choreographed by David Lichine in 1940, with music arranged by Antal Doráti from lesser-known Johann Strauss II waltzes. The ballet premiered with the Original Ballet Russe in Sydney, Australia—and received twenty-five curtain calls on opening night.

The setting is a fashionable Viennese finishing school for young ladies during the 1840s. The headmistress has invited cadets from the city's military academy to attend a ball celebrating the graduation of the senior class. What follows is an evening of flirtations, exuberant dances, divertissements, and a secret romance.

This context matters enormously for performing the Junior Girl variation. She's not a generic ballet student showing off her technique. She's a young woman at a formal social event, displaying her accomplishments in front of military cadets she's hoping to impress.

Understanding 1840s Viennese Finishing School Culture

To dance this variation well, you need to understand what a "finishing school" actually meant in this era—because it's radically different from dance training today.

Finishing schools in the mid-nineteenth century weren't about academics. They were about preparing young women of good families for entry into society. The curriculum focused on social graces: proper behavior at balls, what was considered fashionable, how to be agreeable and pleasant in conversation while remaining appropriately demure, languages (particularly French), music, and art.

The goal was to make graduates desirable wives and interesting women. These young ladies were expected to display accomplishment without appearing to try too hard—to be impressive while remaining modest.

This is the Junior Girl's world. She's been trained in exactly these social graces. The variation is her moment to demonstrate her refinement, her accomplishment, her readiness for society—all while making it look effortless and charming rather than aggressive or showy. But since this is her first ball, her excitement shows through her polished exterior. She just can't help herself!

Who Else Appears in Graduation Ball?

The Junior Girl variation is the most commonly performed solo from this ballet, but she's not alone on stage in the full production. Understanding the other characters helps you understand her place in this world:

The Junior Girls and Senior Girls: The students of the finishing school, divided by class. They've planned the evening's entertainment and are excited about the cadets' arrival.

The Headmistress: The matronly authority figure who oversees the school and the evening's propriety—though she has her own romantic subplot with the Old General.

The Old General: He leads the platoon of cadets and has a flirtatious "Mazurka" duet with the Headmistress.

The Junior Cadets: The young military men invited to the ball. They start out timid, standing apart from the girls, before the ice is broken and dancing begins.

The Pigtail Girl (also called the Naughty Girl): A tomboyish troublemaker among the junior girls who performs an "Impromptu Dance" and ends up sneaking back into the ballroom with a cadet after the ball ends—getting caught and spanked off stage.

The Drummer: A solo for one of the cadets, showcasing military precision.

Various divertissement performers: Including a pas de deux, a competition dance, and other entertainment pieces.

The Junior Girl isn't the naughty one—she's the good one. She's demonstrating exactly what a well-bred young lady should be: accomplished, graceful, and charming without being forward.

The Common Trap: Flexibility Without Character

Here's what I see constantly in competition performances of this variation: dancers use it to showcase their extensions without understanding WHY they're extending.

The développés à la seconde are impressive—and yes, this variation requires more flexibility than many others. But The Junior Girl isn't trying to kick her head. This is one of those moments where her excitement takes over and what an older girl would perform more demurely, she goes for all out. When dancers focus on these big moments as "tricks," then lose all character during the "less impressive" steps, the variation falls apart.

The character doesn't turn her charm off and on. The Junior Girl remains the Junior Girl whether she's doing a simple relevé or a triple pirouette. Her motivation—impressing the watching cadets, demonstrating her refinement, making her teachers proud, and trying to manage her excitement—stays consistent throughout.

Flexibility is a tool. The point is the character.

Three Artistry Elements for Confident Performance

Here's the good news: you can dance this variation beautifully and compellingly even without extreme flexibility. These three artistry elements will carry you further than an extra 20 degrees of extension ever could.

Body Carriage

Body carriage is everything in this variation—and it's also what allows dancers without extreme extensions to look elegant and polished.

Remember: this is a young woman trained in deportment at a finishing school. Her posture isn't just good technique; it's the visible evidence of her education and breeding. An 1840s Viennese finishing school graduate would carry herself with lifted, elegant carriage every moment.

This means:

• Lifted sternum that reads as confidence, not tension

• Lengthened neck suggesting refinement

• Shoulders that stay down and back even during challenging choreography

• A sense of vertical lift that makes every step look intentional

When your body carriage is impeccable, a développé that reaches 100 degrees looks elegant and controlled. When your body carriage collapses, even a développé at 180 degrees looks effortful and uncomfortable. Audiences and judges notice carriage more than they consciously realize.

Dynamics

The Junior Girl is youthful and eager—but not hyper or frenetic. Her dynamics need to convey excitement tempered by training.

Think about what she's been taught: to be impressive while appearing not to try. This creates a specific dynamic quality: buoyant lightness rather than aggressive attack. She's not conquering the choreography; she's enjoying it. She's not proving herself; she's displaying herself.

The high développés should have an effortless quality—"look what I can do" rather than "watch me struggle to achieve this." Even if achieving them IS effort, the dynamic quality should suggest ease.

Similarly, the lighter steps between the big moments aren't throwaway choreography. They're opportunities to show musicality, charm, and the social grace that was the entire point of her education. Every step should have the quality of someone who loves to dance, not someone enduring the simple parts to get to the impressive ones.

Acting

The final pirouette that ends in a "fall" and recovery is one of the most important acting moments in this variation—and it's often performed slapstick.

This isn't just a novel way to end a variation. It's a dramatic moment: she's been performing beautifully, perhaps gotten a bit too caught up in showing off, and the fall represents a crack in her polished presentation. The recovery is equally important—she collects herself with perhaps a touch of embarrassment, and finishes with her composure restored.

Played well, this moment makes her human and relatable rather than just technically impressive. (And let's be honest: choreographed falls can be hard to pull off!) Played without character, it's just a weird choreographic choice that seems to come from nowhere.

Throughout the variation, remember she's dancing FOR someone—the cadets watching, her headmistress, perhaps one particular cadet who caught her eye. She's a young woman at her first formal ball, keenly aware that she's being observed and evaluated. That awareness—without it becoming self-conscious or anxious—is what gives the variation complexity.

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