George Balanchine
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George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th-century. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years.Joseph Horowitz (2008)
''Artists in Exile: How Refugees from 20th-century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts.''
HarperCollins.
His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Balanchine took the standards and technique from his time at the Imperial Ballet School and fused it with other schools of movement that he had adopted during his tenure on Broadway and in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
, creating his signature "neoclassical style". He was a choreographer known for his musicality; he expressed music with dance and worked extensively with leading composers of his time like
Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
. Balanchine was invited to America in 1933 by a young arts patron named
Lincoln Kirstein Lincoln Edward Kirstein (May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996) was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, philanthropist, and cultural figure in New York City, noted especially as co-founder of the New York City Ballet. He developed and sus ...
, and together they founded the
School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...
in 1934 as well as the New York City Ballet in 1948.


Early life

Balanchine was born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, son of Georgian opera singer and composer Meliton Balanchivadze, one of the founders of the
Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre The Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi ( ka, თბილისის ოპერისა და ბალეტის სახელმწიფო აკადემიური თეატრი), formerly known as the ...
and later the culture minister of the short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia, which became independent in 1918 but was later subsumed into the Soviet Union.''New York Times'' article by Anna Kisselgoff
June 29, 2004
The rest of the Georgian side of Balanchine's family consisted largely of artists and soldiers. Little is known of Balanchine's Russian, maternal side. His mother, Meliton's second wife, Maria Nikolayevna Vasilyeva, is said to be the daughter of Nikolai von Almedingen, a German, who later left Russia and abandoned his family, causing Maria to take her mother's name. She was fond of ballet and viewed it as a form of social advancement from the lower reaches of Saint Petersburg society. She was eleven years younger than Meliton and rumored to have been his former housekeeper, although "she had at least some culture in her background" as she could play piano well. The Balanchine mother also worked at a bank. Although she loved ballet, she wished for her son to join the military. This was a difficult topic to enforce in the family because not only was the mother artistic, George's father was also very talented at playing the piano. Many believe that because his father was very invested in the arts, Balanchine's career of being a businessman failed. Balanchine had three other siblings. One of them being
Andrei Balanchivadze Andria Balanchivadze ( ka, ანდრია მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე, ''Andria Melit'onis dze Balanchivadze'', russian: Андре́й Мелито́нович Баланчива́дзе, Andrei Meliton ...
, who became a well-known Georgian composer like his father.


Career


Early auditions and training

As a child, Balanchine was not particularly interested in ballet, but his mother insisted that he audition with his sister Tamara, who shared her mother's interest in the art. Balanchine's brother Andria Balanchivadze instead followed his father's love for music and became a composer in Soviet Georgia. Tamara's career, however, would be cut short by her death in unknown circumstances as she was trying to escape on a train from besieged Leningrad to Georgia. Based on his audition, during 1913 (at age nine), Balanchine relocated from rural Finland to Saint Petersburg and was accepted into the Imperial Ballet School, principal school of the Imperial Ballet, where he was a student of Pavel Gerdt and Samuil Andrianov (Gerdt's son-in-law).Joseph Horowitz (2008).At the Mariinsky Theater Ballet he made his debut as a cupid in Sleeping Beauty. ''Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts''
, New York: HarperCollins;
Balanchine spent the World War I years at the Mariinsky Theater until it closed down in 1917 due to a government decree. Attending ballet here could have been viewed as a convenience to the Balanchivadze family because this is where his father composed music. This theater was transferred to the People's Enlightenment Commissariat and became property of the state. The Theater reopened in 1918, then two years later the theater was called the State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. He mounted some new and experimental ballets for the Mikhailovsky Theatre in Petrograd. Among them were ''Le Boeuf sur le toit'' (1920) by Jean Cocteau and Darius Milhaud, and a scene for Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw. After graduating in 1921, Balanchine enrolled in the
Petrograd Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory (russian: Санкт-Петербургская государственная консерватория имени Н. А. Римского-Корсакова) (formerly known as th ...
while working in the corps de ballet at the State Academic Theater for Opera and Ballet (formerly the State Theater of Opera and Ballet and known as the Mariinsky Ballet). His studies at the conservatory included advanced piano, music theory, counterpoint, harmony, and composition. Balanchine graduated from the conservatory in 1923, and danced as a member of the corps until 1924. While still in his teens, Balanchine choreographed his first work, a
pas de deux In ballet, a pas de deux (French language, French, literally "step of two") is a dance duet in which two dancers, typically a male and a female, perform ballet steps together. The pas de deux is characteristic of classical ballet and can be fo ...
named ''La Nuit'' (1920, music by Anton Rubinstein), a piece which the school of directors did not approve of or like. George Balanchine went about his choreography in an experimental way during the evening time. He and his colleagues eventually performed this piece at the State School of Ballet. This was followed by another duet, ''Enigma'', with the dancers in bare feet rather than ballet shoes. While teaching at the
Mariinsky Ballet The Mariinsky Ballet (russian: Балет Мариинского театра) is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russ ...
, he met Tamara Geva, his future wife. In 1923, with Geva and fellow dancers, Balanchine formed a small ensemble, ''the Young Ballet''.


Ballets Russes

In 1924, ''the Young Ballet'' managed to obtain a permission to leave Russia and tour around Europe. Balanchine with his wife, Tamara Geva, and several other dancers ( Alexandra Danilova,
Nicholas Efimov Nicholas Efimov was a Soviet Ballet dancer who trained at the Theater School in St. Petersburg and the Maryinsky Ballet. During a 1924 tour in Western Europe, Efimov defected along with dancers Alexandra Danilova, choreographer George Balanchine an ...
) went to Germany, but all performances in Berlin were met coldly. ''The Young Ballet'' had to perform in small cities of the
Rhine Province The Rhine Province (german: Rheinprovinz), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. It ...
such as Wiesbaden, Bad Ems, and
Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
. Geva wrote later, that in that time they had to dance 'in small dark places, in summer theaters and private ballrooms, in beer gardens and before mental patients'. They could barely afford paying for hotels and often had only tea for meal. In London, they had two weeks of very unsuccessful performances, when the audience met them with dead silence. With expiring visas, they were not welcome in any other European country. They moved to Paris, where there was a large Russian community. At this time, the impresario Sergei Diaghilev invited Balanchine to join the
Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...
as a choreographer. Balanchine was 21 at the time and became the main choreographer for the most famous ballet company. Sergei Diaghilev insisted that Balanchine change his name from Balanchivadze to Balanchine. Diaghilev soon promoted Balanchine to ballet master of the company and encouraged his choreography. Between 1924 and Diaghilev's death in 1929, Balanchine created ten ballets, as well as lesser works. During these years, he worked with composers such as Sergei Prokofiev,
Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
,
Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...
, and
Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
, and artists who designed sets and costumes, such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, and Henri Matisse, creating new works that combined all the arts. Among his new works, during 1928 in Paris, Balanchine premiered '' Apollon musagète'' (Apollo and the muses) in a collaboration with Stravinsky; it was one of his most innovative ballets, combining classical ballet and classical Greek myth and images with jazz movement. He described it as "the turning point in my life". ''Apollo'' is regarded as the original neoclassical ballet. ''Apollo'' brought the male dancer to the forefront, giving him two solos within the ballet. ''Apollo'' is known for its minimalism, using simple costumes and sets. This allowed the audience not to be distracted from the movement. Balanchine considered music to be the primary influence on choreography, as opposed to the narrative. Due to a serious knee injury, Balanchine had to limit his dancing, effectively ending his performance career. So he decided to focus all his attention on choreography. After Diaghilev's death, the Ballets Russes went bankrupt. To earn money, Balanchine began to stage dances for
Charles B. Cochran Sir Charles Blake Cochran (25 September 1872 31 January 1951), generally known as C. B. Cochran, was an English theatrical manager and impresario. He produced some of the most successful musical revues, musicals and plays of the 1920s and 193 ...
's revues and Sir Oswald Stoll's variety shows in London. He was retained by the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen as a guest ballet master. Among his new works for the company were ''
Danses Concertantes ' is the title of a work for chamber orchestra written in 1941–42 by Igor Stravinsky, commissioned by Werner Janssen. Stravinsky's music has been used for eponymous ballets by numerous choreographers attracted by its danceability. Balanchine ...
'', a pure dance piece to music by Stravinsky, and ''Night Shadow'', revived under the title '' La Sonnambula''. In 1931, with the help of financier Serge Denham, René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil formed the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo,Amanda
"Ballets Russes"
'' The Age'': July 17, 2005
a successor to Ballets Russes. The new company hired Leonide Massine and Balanchine as choreographers. Featured dancers included David Lichine and
Tatiana Riabouchinska Tatiana Mikhailovna Riabouchinska (russian: Татья́на Миха́йловна Рябуши́нская, 23 May 191724 August 2000) was a Russian American prima ballerina and teacher. Famous at age 14 as one of the three " Baby Baller ...
. In 1933, without consulting Blum, Col. de Basil dropped Balanchine after one yearHomans, Jennifer
"René Blum: Life of a Dance Master,"
''The New York Times'' (July 8, 2011).
– ostensibly because he thought that audiences preferred the works choreographed by Massine. Librettist
Boris Kochno Boris Evgenievich Kochno or Kokhno (russian: Бори́с Евге́ньевич Кохно́; 3 January 1904 – 8 December 1990) was a Russian poet, dancer and librettist. Early life Kochno was born in Moscow, Russia, on 3 January 1904. His fa ...
was also let go, while dancer Tamara Toumanova (a strong admirer of Balanchine) left the company when Balanchine was fired. Balanchine and Kochno immediately founded Les Ballets 1933, with Kochno, Diaghilev's former secretary and companion, serving as artistic advisor. The company was financed by Edward James, a British poet and ballet patron. The company lasted only a couple of months during 1933, performing only in Paris and London, when the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
made arts more difficult to fund. Balanchine created several new works, including collaborations with composers
Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...
, Darius Milhaud, Henri Sauguet and designer Pavel Tchelitchew.


United States

Balanchine insisted that his first project in the United States would be to establish a ballet school because he wanted to develop dancers who had strong technique along with his particular style. Compared to his classical training, he thought they could not dance well. With the assistance of Lincoln Kirstein and Edward M.M. Warburg, the
School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the most renowned ballet school in the United States. School of American Ballet is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New ...
opened to students on January 2, 1934, less than three months after Balanchine arrived in the U.S. Later that year, Balanchine had his students perform in a recital, where they premiered his new work ''
Serenade In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honor of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Italian w ...
'' to music by Tchaikovsky at Woodlands, the Warburg summer estate. The school of American Ballet became and is now a home for dancers of New York City Ballet as well as companies from all over the world. Between his ballet activities in the 1930s and 1940s, Balanchine choreographed Broadway musicals written by such notables as
Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most ...
,
Lorenz Hart Lorenz Milton Hart (May 2, 1895 – November 22, 1943) was an American lyricist and half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include " Blue Moon", " The Lady Is a Tramp", "Manhattan", "Bewitched, Both ...
and Vernon Duke. Among them, Balanchine choreographed Rodgers and Hart's '' On Your Toes'' in 1936, where his program billing specified "Choreography by George Balanchine" as opposed to the usual billing of "Dances staged by". This marked the first time in Broadway history that a dance-maker received choreography billing for a Broadway musical. ''On Your Toes'' featured two ballets: '' La Princesse Zenobia'' and '' Slaughter on Tenth Avenue'', in which a tap dancer falls in love with a dance-hall girl. Balanchine's choreography in musicals was unique at the time because it furthered the plot of the story.


Relocation to West Coast

Balanchine relocated his company to
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
in 1938, where he rented a white two-story house with "Kolya", Nicholas Kopeikine, his "rehearsal pianist and lifelong colleague", on North Fairfax Avenue not far from Hollywood Boulevard. Balanchine created dances for five movies, all of which featured Vera Zorina, whom he met on the set of '' The Goldwyn Follies'' and who subsequently became his second wife. He reconvened the company as the
American Ballet Caravan The American Ballet was the first professional ballet company George Balanchine created in the United States. The company was founded with the help of Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Warburg, managed by Alexander Merovitch and populated by students ...
and toured with it throughout North and
South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
America, but it folded after several years. From 1944 to 1946, during and after World War II, Balanchine served as resident choreographer for Blum & Massine's new iteration of Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo.


Return to New York

Soon Balanchine formed a new dance company, Ballet Society, again with the generous help of Lincoln Kirstein. He continued to work with contemporary composers such as Paul Hindemith, from whom he commissioned a score in 1940 for '' The Four Temperaments''. First performed on November 20, 1946, this modernist work was one of his early abstract and spare ballets, angular and very different in movement. After several successful performances, the most notable featuring the ballet '' Orpheus'' created in collaboration with Stravinsky and sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi, the City of New York offered the company residency at the New York City Center. In 1954, Balanchine created his version of '' The Nutcracker'', in which he played the mime role of Drosselmeyer. The company has since performed the ballet every year in New York City during the Christmas season. His other famous ballets created for New York companies include ''Firebird'', ''Allegro Brilliante'', ''
Agon Agon (Greek ) is a Greek term for a conflict, struggle or contest. This could be a contest in athletics, in chariot or horse racing, or in music or literature at a public festival in ancient Greece. Agon is the word-forming element in 'agony', ...
'', '' The Seven Deadly Sins'', and '' Episodes''. In 1967, Balanchine's ballet '' Jewels'' displayed specific characteristics of Balanchine's choreography. The corps de ballet dancers execute rapid footwork and precise movements. The choreography is difficult to execute and all dancers must do their jobs to hold the integrity of the piece. Balanchine's use of musicality can also be seen in this work. His other famous works with New York City Ballet are popular today and are performed in the Lincoln Center by New York City Ballet: '' Mozartiana'', '' Apollo'', '' Orpheus'', and ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
''.


Death

In his last years, Balanchine had angina pectoris and underwent heart bypass surgery. After years of illness, Balanchine died on April 30, 1983, aged 79, in Manhattan from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, which was diagnosed only after his death. He first showed symptoms during 1978 when he began losing his balance while dancing. As the disease progressed, his equilibrium, eyesight, and hearing deteriorated. By 1982, he was incapacitated. The night of his death, the company went on with its scheduled performance, which included ''Divertimento No. 15'' and '' Symphony in C'' at Lincoln Center. Clement Crisp, one of the many writers who eulogized Balanchine, assessed his contribution: "It is hard to think of the ballet world without the colossal presence of George Balanchine ..." In his lifetime he created 465 works. Balanchine extended the traditions of classical ballet. His choreography remains the same to the present day and the School of American Ballet still uses his teaching technique. As one of the 20th century's best-known choreographers, his style and vision of ballet is interesting to many generations of choreographers. He had a Russian Orthodox funeral, and was interred at the Oakland Cemetery at Sag Harbor, Suffolk County, New York at the same cemetery where Alexandra Danilova was later interred.


Personal life

In 1923, Balanchine married Tamara Geva, a sixteen-year-old dancer. After later parting ways with Geva, he became romantically involved with the ballerina Alexandra Danilova, from approximately 1924 to 1931. As '' The New York Times'' described their relationship in its obituary for Danilova: "She and Balanchine left the Soviet Union in 1924... Until 1931, she and Balanchine lived together as husband and wife, although they were never married. Balanchine was still officially married to another dancer, Tamara Geva, and he told Miss Danilova that because his marriage papers had been left behind in Russia, he feared it might be difficult to arrange a legal separation." He married and divorced three more times, all to women who were his dancers: Vera Zorina (1938–1946), Maria Tallchief (1946–1952), and
Tanaquil LeClercq Tanaquil Le Clercq ( ; October 2, 1929 – December 31, 2000) was an American ballet dancer, born in Paris, France, who became a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet at the age of nineteen. Her dancing career ended abruptly when she ...
(1952–1969). He had no children by any of his marriages and no known offspring from any of his extramarital liaisons. Biographer and intellectual historian
Clive James Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts'' (2007), James writes that:


Legacy and honors

With his School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet, and 400 choreographed works, Balanchine transformed American dance and created neoclassical ballet, developing a unique style with his dancers highlighted by brilliant speed and attack. A monument at the
Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre The Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi ( ka, თბილისის ოპერისა და ბალეტის სახელმწიფო აკადემიური თეატრი), formerly known as the ...
in Georgia was dedicated in Balanchine's memory. A crater on Mercury was named in his honor. George Balanchine Way is a segment of West 63rd Street (located between Columbus Avenue and Broadway) in New York City that was renamed in his honor in June 1990. Playwright Richard Nelson wrote ''Nikolai and the Others'', produced at the Mitzi Newhouse theater at Lincoln Center in 2013 with Michael Cerveris as Balanchine.


Awards

* 1975 French Légion d'honneur * 1978
Kennedy Center Honors The Kennedy Center Honors are annual honors given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture. They have been presented annually since 1978, culminating each December in a gala celebrating five hono ...
* 1980 Austrian Decoration for Science and Art * 1983 Presidential Medal of Freedom * 1987 National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame (posthumously) * 1988 Induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame * Kisselgoff, Anna. "Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration"


Selected choreographed works

* 1928 '' Apollo'' * 1929 ''
The Prodigal Son The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a parable of Jesus from the Bible. The Prodigal Son or Prodigal Son may also refer to: Film * ''L'Enfant prodigue'' (1907 film) (The Prodigal Son), by Michel Carré, based on his play * , a short silent film b ...
'' * 1935 ''
Serenade In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honor of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Italian w ...
'' * 1936 '' Slaughter on Tenth Avenue'' * 1936 '' Zenobia'' * 1936 '' Ziegfeld Follies of 1936'' * 1937 '' Jeu de cartes'' * 1938 '' The Boys from Syracuse'' * 1940 '' Cabin in the Sky'' * 1941 '' Concerto Barocco'' * 1941 '' Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2'' * 1942 ''
Circus Polka ''Circus Polka: For a Young Elephant'' was written by Igor Stravinsky in 1942. He composed it for a ballet production that the choreographer George Balanchine did for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The ballet was performed by fifty ...
'' * 1946 '' La Sonnambula'' * 1946 '' The Four Temperaments'' * 1947 ''Symphonie Concertante'' * 1947 '' Symphony in C'' * 1947 ''
Theme and Variations In music, variation is a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form. The changes may involve melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, orchestration or any combination of these. Variation techniques Mozart's Twelve ...
'' * 1948 '' Orpheus'' * 1948 '' Where's Charley?'' * 1949 ''Bourrée fantasque'' * 1949 '' The Firebird'' * 1951 '' La Valse'' * 1951 ''
Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoye ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, link=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failur ...
'' (Act 2) * 1951 ''
Courtin' Time ''Courtin' Time'' is a musical in 2 Acts adapted by William Roos from Eden Phillpotts's 1916 play ''The Farmer's Wife'', with lyrics and music by Jack Lawrence and Don Walker.Atkinson, p. 30 Set in the state of Maine in the year 1898, the mus ...
'' * 1952 ''
Bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...
'' * 1952 '' Scotch Symphony'' * 1954 '' Ivesiana'' * 1954 '' Western Symphony'' * 1956 '' Allegro Brillante'' * 1956 ''Divertimento No. 15'' * 1957 ''
Agon Agon (Greek ) is a Greek term for a conflict, struggle or contest. This could be a contest in athletics, in chariot or horse racing, or in music or literature at a public festival in ancient Greece. Agon is the word-forming element in 'agony', ...
'' * 1957 ''
Square Dance A square dance is a dance for four couples, or eight dancers in total, arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances contain elements from numerous traditional dances and were first documente ...
'' * 1958 ''Gounod Symphony'' * 1958 '' Stars and Stripes'' * 1959 '' Episodes'' * 1960 ''Donizetti Variations'' * 1960 '' Liebeslieder Walzer'' * 1960 ''
Monumentum pro Gesualdo ''Monumentum pro Gesualdo'' is a ballet by the New York City Ballet (NYCB) co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to music by Igor Stravinsky composed in honor of the 400th birthday of the composer Carlo Gesualdo and consisting of Stravins ...
'' * 1960 ''
Ragtime (I) ''Ragtime (I)'' is the second of three ballets made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's 1918 '' Ragtime for Eleven Instruments''; with scenery by Robert Drew previously used for Lew Chris ...
'' * 1960 '' Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux'' * 1961 '' Raymonda Variations'' * 1962 ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
'' * 1963 '' Bugaku'' * 1964 '' Tarantella'' * 1965 '' Don Quixote'' * 1965 ''
Harlequinade ''Harlequinade'' is a British comic theatrical genre, defined by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts". It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th cent ...
'' * 1966 '' Brahms–Schoenberg Quartet'' * 1966 '' Variations'' * 1967 ''Divertimento Brillante'' * 1967 '' Jewels'' ** '' Emeralds'' ** '' Rubies'' ** '' Diamonds'' * 1967 ''
Ragtime (II) ''Ragtime (II)'' is the third ballet made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine to Igor Stravinsky's '' Ragtime for Eleven Instruments'' (1918). The premiere took place on July 15, 1966, at Philharmonic Hall, ...
'' * 1968 '' Metastaseis and Pithoprakta'' * 1968 '' Requiem Canticles'' * 1968 '' La Source'' * 1968 '' Slaughter on Tenth Avenue'' * 1970 ''
Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 ''Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3'' is a ballet made by New York City Ballet co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine to Tschaikovsky's Suite No. 3 for Orchestra in G major, Op. 55 (1884). The premiere took place on 3 December 1970 at t ...
'' * 1970 '' Who Cares?'' * 1972 ''
Duo Concertant Duo Concertant is a 1932 composition for violin and piano by Igor Stravinsky. The impetus for this piece came from neo-classical literature and this is reflected in the names of the movements: Stravinsky dedicated Duo Concertant to Samuel Dush ...
'' * 1972 '' Pulcinella'' * 1972 '' Scherzo à la Russe'' * 1972 ''
Stravinsky Violin Concerto Igor Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D is a neoclassical violin concerto in four movements, composed in the summer of 1931 and premiered on October 23, 1931. It lasts approximately twenty minutes. It was used by George Balanchine as music for tw ...
'' * 1972 ''
Symphony in Three Movements The Symphony in Three Movements is a work by Russian expatriate composer Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky wrote the symphony from 1942–45 on commission by the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was premièred by the New York Philharmoni ...
'' * 1973 ''Cortège Hongrois'' * 1975 '' Le tombeau de Couperin'' * 1975 '' The Steadfast Tin Soldier'' * 1976 '' Chaconne'' * 1976 '' Union Jack'' * 1977 '' Vienna Waltzes'' * 1978 ''
Ballo della Regina ''Ballo della Regina'' is a one-act neoclassical ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to music by Giuseppe Verdi. It is a set of variations set to ballet music (titled ''La Peregrina'') that Verdi cut from Act 3 of the original 1867 version o ...
'' * 1978 ''
Kammermusik No. 2 (''Chamber Music'') is the title for eight chamber music compositions by Paul Hindemith. He wrote them, each in several movements, during the 1920s. They are grouped in three opus numbers: Op. 24, Op. 36 and Op. 46. Six of these works, ''Kamme ...
'' * 1979 '' Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme'' * 1980 ''Ballade'' * 1980 '' Robert Schumann's ''Davidsbündlertänze'''' * 1980 '' Walpurgisnacht Ballet'' * 1981 ''Garland Dance'' * 1981 '' Mozartiana'' * 1982 '' Élégie'' * 1982 '' Noah and the Flood''


Notable students

Over the decades Balanchine shared his artistic insights with several of his students including: * Francisco Moncion * Nicholas Magallanes


See also

* Balanchine method * Contemporary ballet * List of dancers * List of Russian ballet dancers *
List of Eastern Bloc defectors A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
* : Ballets by George Balanchine * :Musicals choreographed by George Balanchine


Notes


References


Sources

* *


Further reading

* * * * * *


External links

*
Biography
on the website of the George Balanchine Foundation.
George Balanchine Catalog, including premiere date, cast, collaborators, and synopsis for all choreographic works

Timeline of Balanchine's life
on the website of the
George Balanchine Trust George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...
*
Firebird
performed by Maria Tallchief and Michael Maule, Jacob's Pillow, 1951 ** Jacob's Pillow, 2006
Archival footage of Nora Kaye and Hugh Laing performing in Balanchine's ''The Gods Go a-Begging'' in 1951 at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

George Balanchine: Master of the Dance
''American Masters'', PBS, January 14, 2004 *
Guide to George Balanchine archive
at Houghton Library, Harvard University Articles * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balanchine, George 1904 births 1983 deaths American people of Georgian (country) descent American people of Russian descent American choreographers Ballet choreographers Male ballet dancers from Georgia (country) Ballet dancers from Georgia (country) Ballet masters Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo choreographers Ballet teachers George Balanchine Ballets Russes choreographers Choreographers of American Ballet Theatre Choreographers of New York City Ballet Deaths from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) Infectious disease deaths in New York (state) Kennedy Center honorees New York City Ballet Dancers from Saint Petersburg Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Recipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art Russian male ballet dancers Russian choreographers Soviet defectors White Russian emigrants to France White Russian emigrants to the United States Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Vaganova graduates American dance teachers