I'm curious about Balanchine and how he used emploi with his dancers and in his choreography. Violette Verdy and Patricia McBride are two dancers that because of size, and stage personality would be classified as soubrettes and Balanchine did make some lovely soubrette type roles for both. Verdy had Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux, McBride had Coppelia and Tarentella. However he also explored a different side of both dancers, a side you normally don't assume to see in a soubrette. Verdy's role in Liebleslieder Waltzer, McBride's in BS Quartet.
You can see the same thing with the men. For instance, Arthur Mitchell I would classify as a dancer noble. But Balanchine cast him as Puck. Eddie Villella seemed like a demi-character, but Balanchine cast him in Swan Lake and so on.
Did Balanchine believe in using emploi when casting dancers? Or was it simply a case of knowing what a certain dancer could do, and then wanting to stretch that dancer. Or how about the theory that he picked, nutured and advanced these wonderful dancer because they could transcend emploi? I mean good grief, what emploi would you classify Suzanne Farrell as belonging to?