It was commissioned by Broadway producer Billy Rose for inclusion in the revue The Seven Lively Arts that opened at the Ziegfeld Theater on December 7, 1944.
[1] The Seven Lively Arts brought together a number of notable performers: Beatrice Lillie, Bert Lahr, Benny Goodman, and "Doc" Rockwell as well as showgirls – "the prettiest around at the moment," according to The New York Times review.
[3] Although Rose had requested a 15-minute work, "the music was cut to a fraction of its original length when The Seven Lively Arts ... opened in New York.
[6] On 8 December 1944, Lewis Nichols wrote a generally favorable review of the show, although he observed: "Markova and Dolin also have a couple of numbers, one to Stravinsky music, which probably is not the best they ever have done."
Stravinsky himself later observed: "Scènes de ballet is a period piece, a portrait of Broadway in the last years of the War.