In 1957 Leonard Bernstein, together with choreographer Jerome Robbins and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, created the work which was to assure his reputation as a composer: West Side Story. A modern-day, big-city adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, this "social music drama" moves the tragic tale of the lovers of Verona to the once-impoverished west side of Manhattan. West Side Story was premiered in Washington DC in August 1957 and repeated the following month in New York, where its success ensured a run of almost two years (772 performances) and a national tour. In 1960, Bernstein drew from it an orchestral suite of Symphonic Dances which follows the principal episodes of the drama.

The score brings together the musical's most famous songs ("Somewhere," "Maria"), dances ("Mambo," "Cha-cha," "Rumba") and orchestral sections ("Meeting Scene"), from the opening confrontation of the Jets and Sharks ("Prologue") to the recapitulation of the "Finale." With a kaleidoscopic range of moods and emotions, the suite is a marvel of stylistic diversity and compositional skill. Especially notable are the score's rhythmic intricacies, as classical techniques (i.e. fugue) blend with dance rhythms and jazz syncopations. Yet the most prominent ingredient appears in the opening melodic figure of "Maria" (C-F sharp-G) with its characteristic tritone interval. Bernstein pinpointed this as the kernel of the entire score: "...The three notes pervade the whole piece, inverted, done backwards. I didn't do all this on purpose. It seemed to come out in 'Cool' and as the gang whistle [in 'Prologue']. The same three notes." Indeed, like the musical, the suite ends on a tense, unresolved, and haunting chord containing the same interval.

The Symphonic Dances were premiered at a "Valentine for Leonard Bernstein" gala concert by the New York Philharmonic (a fund-raiser for the orchestra's pension fund) under the direction of Lukas Foss on February 13, 1961. The suite remains one of Bernstein's most popular works.

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