Lew Christensen
A tall, blond Adonis steps onto the stage to go into his amazing leaps and turns with all the vitality of an American athlete and the grace of a Nijinsky. This is Lew Christensen of the American Ballet Caravan, leading dancer and ballet master.

So began a 1939 review of the young star of American Ballet Caravan who, despite modest beginnings, would become one of America’s most important dancers and choreographers. Credited as being this century’s first great American-born danseur noble, Christensen was also the creator of over one hundred and ten ballets, several of which are recognized as seminal works in American dance history. Christensen was a principal dancer and ballet master with Ballet Caravan, The American Ballet Society, the New York City Ballet, and most significantly, Artistic Director of San Francisco Ballet from 1951 until his death in 1984. Christensen’s ballets are acclaimed for their craft, musicality and wit. His choreography shrewdly yet effortlessly blends the classical legacy with an innate American liveliness. Christensen’s ballets are in the repertory of major companies in the United States including San Francisco Ballet, the New York City Ballet.

Con Amore, a work of genuine good humor and deftly simple design, has met with a warm reception from audiences of many ages and background. Like all effective comedy, Christensen’s ballet is built on careful timing, and it draws upon a wealth of classic comic principles: uncomplicated characters who are instantly recognizable types, accident meetings, extreme feelings making sudden reversals, the teasing threat of violence, and the disarming of all dangers and resolution of all conflict via the irrational magic of love.

Alfred Frankenstein summarizes the balletic pretext in the following words. “In the first scene a young bandit invades an Amazon’s camp, in the second a lady entertains several admirers too many, and in the third the god of love resolves both situations in a pseudo-classic triumph.”

“Brilliant, ceaselessly lively and ceaselessly inventive,” wrote Alfred Frankenstein in the San Francisco Chronicle immediately after its premier in San Francisco, Con Amore entered the repertory of the New York City Ballet. John Martin, in his review of the opening performance wrote in the New York Times, “Certainly Mr. Christensen never produced more resourceful choreography and James Graham-Lujan has provided him with a most amusing libretto to hang it on…The work makes for first rate entertainment.”

Also of the New York performances, Walter Terry wrote,”…one can do no less than cheer the addition of the captivating Con Amore to the New York City Ballet’s repertory. Many of the elements that have made Christensen’s ballets so popular: wit, charm, humor, and brilliant, fast-paced timing are brought together to make Con Amore a Christensen classic.