Ballet West chose to perform a classic 1925 ballet, then faced another decision: Do racist elements stay or go?

Millicent Hobson has spent decades researching influential ballets, gathering notes, reviews and memories to envision choreography from performances that seemed lost to history.Her reconstructions include the legendary George Balanchine’s 1925 “Le Chant du Rossignol,” the tale of a Chinese emperor who favors the notes of a mechanical bird over the song of a nightingale.Ballet West chose “Le Chant,” along with two other early works Balanchine created for the Ballet R