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A visit to the theater5 minutes

How to understand a ballet performance in Vienna

By Mary De LucaUpdated

In brief
  • At a ballet performance in Vienna, the structure of the work, the casting and the scene changes help you understand what is happening on stage.
  • You don't need dance experience or French terminology to visit the Staatsoper or Volksoper.
  • A story ballet tells a story through relationships between characters, while an abstract ballet brings movement and music together without a continuous story.
  • First, break the evening down into works or acts, then watch the main characters, groups and musical changes.

From the audience, you sometimes see a duet in the foreground and a large formation behind it at the same time. You don’t have to decipher every movement: choosing where to focus makes the evening easier to follow without turning it into a test of your knowledge.

What you need for your visit

  • An overview of the work and cast details for your evening
  • A short synopsis, if the work has a plot
  • Your seat as your starting point for viewing the stage
  • A switched-off mobile phone or one stowed away on silent

The Evening Has a Form, Not Just a Title

When you attend a ballet performance in Vienna at the State Opera or Volksoper, start with the form of the evening. A full-length work can be divided into acts. By contrast, a mixed bill brings together independent ballets, possibly with different musical and choreographic styles. A new title then means a new beginning, not automatically a continuation of the same story.

In a narrative ballet, characters, encounters and conflicts serve as guides. In an abstract ballet, spatial patterns, qualities of movement and musical contrasts can hold things together. If there is no continuous plot, you don't have to invent a hidden story. For example, notice whether a group surrounds one person, or whether the same movement returns later at a different tempo.

Work credits also distinguish different roles: the composition refers to the music, while the choreography refers to the design of the dance. Cast information connects a role or part with the person dancing it that evening. A work description does not replace this information. One way to move from simply recognizing familiar images to observing closely is to recognize dance through its movement rather than its show effects. In ballet, pay particular attention to pathways, directions of gaze and the interplay with the music.

Even a motionless group can direct the gaze and thereby highlight a single movement.
Even a motionless group can direct the gaze and thereby highlight a single movement.

Your ballet outing in seven steps

  1. Take in the program sequence before you sit down

    Read the overview of your evening at the Staatsoper or Volksoper: Does it list one work with acts, or several titles side by side? Remember the order and any listed intervals, so you don't later mistake a change of work for a jump in the plot.

  2. Briefly capture the central conflict

    For a narrative ballet, read the short synopsis and sum up the starting point in one sentence, for example: Two characters want to be together, but someone prevents it. For an abstract work, instead take a musical or choreographic idea mentioned in the synopsis with you to your seat.

  3. Distinguish roles from performers

    Match the key role names to the performers in the cast without memorizing all the names. If there are no characters, use details about solos and groups as a guide to how the dance is distributed, rather than as people in a story.

  4. Cross-check with the first performance

    At the beginning, match the information you’ve prepared with what you see: Who performs alone, who is accompanied by a group, and who reacts to whom? Costumes and positioning offer clues, but a central position alone does not prove someone has the lead role.

  5. Follow an encounter through to the end

    Observe a specific relationship: Do two characters move closer, pull away, or support each other? In a Pas de deux, a dance for two, look for movements they share and sections they dance apart; this form doesn’t have to be a love scene.

  6. Notice musical and spatial changes

    When the music changes, focus your attention on the stage: Are the pathways getting shorter, the jumps more frequent, or the movements calmer? Then compare the formation with the beginning of the scene, rather than immediately assuming a new figure at every change.

  7. Make sense of your impression during the interval

    At the designated interval point, note one observation and one open question: for example, a change in a relationship and an unclear entrance. Use the synopsis only to address this gap; after the finale, distinguish the end of the work from the bows that follow.

Interpret observations correctly

So, yes

  • View a lift in the context of the scene
  • When movements repeat, pay attention to changes in dynamics
  • Also perceive the group as a spatial frame
  • Allow applause without inferring an act change from it

Not like this

  • Read every lift as a declaration of love
  • Dismiss a repeated movement as meaningless
  • Ignore the group and treat it solely as background
  • Assume every round of applause means an act has ended

Your checklist

Before the start

Introduction

During the Break

Interim Update

After the Ending

Looking Back

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. For a narrative ballet, knowing the premise helps, but you don't need to know the full story beforehand. A brief synopsis can keep you from confusing key relationships. Reading the ending in advance is up to you: it can make it easier to follow, but may take some of the suspense out of the performance.

See ballet together see

On udansa connect, you can find people in Vienna to go see ballet with. Afterwards, you can share your observations, even if you interpreted the same scene differently.

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See ballet together see

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