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Choreographer George Balanchine was known for rejecting the premise that his ballets were abstract. Yet, a closer look into his comments on abstraction reveals a greater degree of ambivalence toward the concept than previously noticed. His influential words found response in dance critical writing, where the term &ldquo, &rdquo, continued to circulate, but was often applied in vague ways, such as &ldquo, so-called abstraction.&rdquo, This and other softened terminological variations formed an ambiguous collection of abstractive terms, like a vague word cloud around the dance concept. This article explores abstraction in Balanchine&rsquo, s particular ballets, and makes a two-fold argument. On the one hand, by emphasizing the visual aspects of Balanchine&rsquo, s compositions, we may uncover ways to untangle his dilemma about dance abstraction. Visual theories of &ldquo, semantic abstraction&rdquo, by Harold Osborne, and of &ldquo, the gesture of abstraction&rdquo, by Blake Stimson, may help us to understand the abstractive modes in several of Balanchine&rsquo, s black-and-white ballets. On the other hand, whether discussed or not, Balanchine&rsquo, s abstractive gestures have created powerful representational shifts in some cases. In particular, by examining the interracially cast duet from the ballet Agon (1957) as a visual case study, we may see how Balanchine&rsquo, s rejections of the concept, amplified by critics&rsquo, vague terminological invocations of, or silence about, abstractive choreographic gestures, occluded the work&rsquo, s participation in the discourse of abstraction. Simultaneously, unnoticed yet potent choreographic gestures of semantic abstraction may have promoted whiteness as a normative structure, one that relies on a hegemonic &ldquo, bodily integrity&rdquo, (as discussed by Saidiya Hartman). Such an analysis leads to a recognition that Balanchine&rsquo, s abstraction could have been a subversive form of dissent similar to Kobena Mercer&rsquo, s concept of &ldquo, discrepant abstraction.&rdquo, However, I posit that, as a result of the Balanchine dilemma and its influence, the interlinked gestures of an abstract nature that have not been recognized as such promoted the self-regulative structure identified by Bojana Cvejić as &ldquo, white harmony.&rdquo, Ultimately, a more specific and clear application of the term &ldquo, in ballet is needed, as it can help to dismantle or disrupt the system of white supremacy operative in dominant ballet structures.