The variations consist of solos, duets, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets and group numbers.
[2][3] Author Deborah Jowitt wrote this part is "more playful and experimental"[2] It features dancers in jewel tone practice clothes.
"[2] In Part II, the dancers add bits to their costumes, at first shirts for men, and breeches and short skirts for women, and later tutus and jackets.
[2][4] In the final variation, when dancers in both parts of the ballet appear in full period costumes.
[3] However, Jowitt noted that he nevertheless incorporates qualities he found in the score, such as "pensive", "playful", "tentative" and "intimate".
[2] As intended in the score, Robbins included every repeat of the variations, even the ones that concert pianists sometimes skip.
[3]: 275 On the second day of rehearsal, Robbins snapped his Achilles tendon when he was demonstrating a step to the dancers.
[1]: 393 The dancers were in practice clothes, while Robbins explained the ballet to the audience at the side of the stage.
[6] New York Times's Clive Barnes praised the ballet, calling it "a work of such amplitude and grandeur that it make you fall in love with the human body all over again.