The band, also 12-strong, sit casually at the back of the stage playing while the dancers perform in front of them, adding to the 1920s party-like atmosphere.
[1] A BBC film of Elite Syncopations was also made in 1975 and danced by The Royal Ballet's original cast, in Battersea's Big Top.
[1] The piece entered the repertory of Birmingham Royal Ballet on 10 February 1978 at Sadler's Wells Theatre.
The full score list is: The ballet was premiered in Covent Garden on 7 October 1974: The principal roles were danced by: Initial reception was mixed.
The reviewers in The Times and The Observer found the piece vulgar and unstylish,[4] but Dance and Dancers thought it "cheerfully diverting" with "some of the Royal Ballet’s best and most distinctive principals displaying new facets of their artistry in the choreography MacMillan devised for them.