"[6]: 197  Suki Schorer, who had danced one of the lead roles, commented,[7] More difficult in precision in technique is exactitude in timing – the syncopation.

[8] Marie-Jeanne, the lead ballerina in the original cast, wrote in 1991, "[Balanchine] changed Barocco musically, making it fit the beat.

"[6]: 197 Balanchine had listened to Bach's Concerto for Two Violins for some years, often a recording by Orchestre symphonique de Paris, conductor Pierre Monteux and violinists Yehudi Menuhin and George Enescu.

[5] According to Nathan Milstein, a violinist and friend of Balanchine, the choreographer was interested in Bach for "the mathematical precision of his music and, at the same time, its pure emotional and unfeigned staining for God.

The project did not materialise but gave Balanchine the idea of incorporating American jazz and tap dance techniques and rhythm into the Bach score.

[5] Balanchine, who was interested in jazz and African American culture, learned the counting, timing and phrasing techniques in jazz dance through his works with black dancers, including Katherine Dunham, Josephine Baker, Buddy Bradley and the Nicholas Brothers, during the 1930s.

[5] He choreographed the ballet with the Orchestre symphonique de Paris recording, but was also inspired by a syncopated arrangement of the concerto by jazz pianist Hazel Scott.

[8] Also in 1941, Kirstein was invited by his friend Nelson Rockefeller to organise a dance tour across South America subsidised by the US government.

Rockefeller, who was appointed Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and given a budget to build cultural and financial relations in South America amid World War II.

[5] Balanchine's then-wife Vera Zorina was set to dance one of the lead roles, but she ultimately did not join the American Ballet Caravan.

[5] In the 1945 staging by Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo, Berman believed the sets were not properly constructed and refused to let the troupe to use his designs.

[4]: 317–318  In 1996, Marie-Jeanne took part in a videotaped session in which she coached students of the School of American Ballet to dance Concerto Barocco in its original form.

[12] Concerto Barocco was performed in New York in 1943 by the American Concert Ballet, a short-lived troupe consisted of Balanchine dancers, led by Dollar, Shea and Todd Bolender.