In a discussion of the history of ballet and music (pp.4-5 of my pdf version), Ratmansky incisively sums up what ballet can do, referring to Balanchine's Serenade as his model: " 'It's just dance, and at the same time it has narrative, which can be interpreted in very different ways. This, I think, is the specialty of ballet, more than story ballets or completely "abstract" works.' "