Dance Panels

Ever since Jerome Robbins had directed the opera, The Tender Land, he and Copland had wanted to work together again. Robbins asked him for ballet music, and Copland created a piano score. Robbins said, "A strange thing happened. When I began working with the company, I got interested in what they were doing with just the counts and without the music. I was sorry I wasn't able to do Dance Panels." The music was revised later for use by another ballet company. Finally, it became an orchestral work in seven contrasting sections.

-Vivian Perlis, 1998