Balanchine

George Balanchine (January 22, 1904 – April 30, 1983)

Balanchine is one of the 20th century's foremost choreographers, a pioneer of ballet in the US, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet. He is one of the founders of modern ballet. He had extensive knowledge of classical forms and techniques and on the other hand was as a choreographer known for his musicality. He worked extensively with composer Igor Stravinsky.

Balanchine's father was the noted Georgian composer Meliton Balanchivadze (1862–1937), one of the founders of the Georgian Opera. His brother, Andria Balanchivadze (1906–1992), was a Georgian composer.

In 1913 (he was then nine years old) Balanchine moved from Finland to Saint Petersburg and was enrolled in the Imperial Ballet School. Balanchine enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory in tandem with his corps de ballet duties at The State Academic Theatre for Opera and Ballet. He graduated from the conservatory in 1923. In his teens, Balanchine choreographed his first work, a pas de deux called La Nuit (music by Anton Rubinstein).

He fled to Paris in 1924. Serge Diaghilev, also a Russian exile, asked Balanchine to join his Ballets Russes as a choreographer. He was soon promoted to balletmaster of that company. Between 1924 and Diaghilev's death in 1929, Balanchine created nine ballets, and some smaller choreographies. After Diaghilev's death the Ballets Russes fell into disarray. Balanchine then staged dances for the Cochran Revues in London, and worked as a guest ballet master for Royal Danish Ballet. He returned to the Ballets Russes when it settled in Monte Carlo. His next step was to form his own company, Les Ballets 1933. The company lasted only a couple of months, but in that time several new choreographies were conceived by Balanchine, including artistic collaborations with Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, Pavel Tchelitchew, Darius Milhaud, and Henri Sauget.

Later in 1933 Balanchine moved to the United States. His first project in the US was the establishment of a ballet school: School of American Ballet. He worked as a choreographer for musical theater. He was an admirer of the famous dancer Fred Astaire. In 1935, Balanchine formed a professional company called the American Ballet. After failing to mount a tour, the company began performing at the Metropolitan Opera House. The company moved to Hollywood in 1938. Balanchine formed a new dance company, the Ballet Society, which became the New York City Ballet in 1948. Balanchine's 1954 staging of The Nutcracker, performed every year in New York City during the Christmas season, has made the ballet a Christmas tradition in the United States, and also a money-making tradition for most of the companies which perform it. In 1978 George Balanchine received the Kennedy Center Honors Award, the first year the awards were given.

In 1983, Balanchine died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.