George Balanchine

George Balanchine (January 22,1904–April 30, 1983) is one of the twentieth century's foremost choreographers, and one of the founders of American ballet. His work formed a bridge between classical and modern ballet.

With his dance skills honed in the famed St. Petersburg schools of the Russian classical tradition, Balanchine defected to the West with three other dancers when the opportunity arose to join Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. There he continued a choreographic career—his first work created in his teens—that would take him to the world's great companies, and then to America where he founded the celebrated New York City Ballet.

Although Balanchine's works often carried Western themes, they were always staged in the distinctive Russian dance idiom which that stressed the dancer's self-discipline over any excesses of athleticism. The choreographer reached uniquely celebrated status not only due to his innovative prowess working in the Western idiom, but because of the dance public's appreciation for the Russian dance tradition that spawned such a masterful talent. When he died in 1993, Balanchine had written works for 15 companies around the world, and had a portfolio containing some

Russia

Balanchine was born Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His father, noted Georgian composer Meliton Balanchivadze (1862-1937), was one of the founders of the Georgian Opera. Balanchine's brother, Andrei Balanchivadze (1906-1992), also went on to become a well-known Georgian composer.

In 1913 at the age of nine, Balanchine enrolled in the Imperial Ballet School, principal school of the Imperial Ballet, where he studied under Pavel Gerdt and Samuil Andrianov (Pavel's son-in-law). With the victory of the Bolsheviks in the revolution, the school was disbanded as an offensive symbol of the Tsarist regime. To survive the privation and Martial Law of this period, Balanchine played the piano—for food, not for money—at cabarets and silent-movie theaters.

Eventually the Imperial Ballet School reopened amid greatly reduced monetary funds. After graduating with honors in 1921, Balanchine enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory in tandem with his corps de ballet duties at the The State Academic Theater for Opera and Ballet (formerly the State Theater of Opera and Ballet). In 1922, when Balanchine was eighteen, he married Tamara Geva, a fifteen-year-old dancer. His studies at the conservatory included advanced piano, music theory, counterpoint, harmony, and composition. Balanchine graduated from the conservatory in 1923, where was a member of the corps until 1924.

While still in his teens, Balanchine choreographed his first work, a pas de deux called La Nuit (1920, with music by Anton Rubinstein). This was followed by another duet, Enigma, danced in bare feet. In 1923, with fellow dancers, he formed a small ensemble, the Young Ballet. The choreography proved too experimental for the new authorities, who strongly encouraged the group to disband.

Balanchine, Tamara Geva, Alexandra Danilova, and Nicholas Efimov were granted permission to tour Western Europe in 1924. While performing in London, England, Serge Diaghilev asked the group to join his Ballets Russes, prompting the four to defect.

Ballets Russes

Diaghilev soon promoted Balanchine to balletmaster of the company, and allowed him to develop his own choreography. Between 1924 and Diaghilev's death in 1929, Balanchine created nine ballets, as well as smaller choreographies. Unfortunately, he also suffered a serious knee injury at this time, which limited his dancing and effectively ended his performance career. In 1926, Balanchine and Tamara Geva divorced.

After his divorce from Geva, Balanchine married and divorced three more times. All were dancers: Vera Zorina (December 1938 - 1946), Maria Tallchief (1946 - 1952), and Tanaquil LeClerq (1952 - 1969), as well as his common law wife, Alexandra Danilova (1926 - 1933). He had no children.

After Diaghilev's death, the Ballets Russes fell into disarray. Balanchine began to stage dances for the Cochran Revues in London, and was retained by the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen as guest ballet master. He returned to the Ballets Russes when it settled in Monte Carlo, resuming his post as ballet master for the new Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, and choreographed three ballets: Cotillon, La Concurrence, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. His muse in Monte Carlo was the young Tamara Toumanova, one of the original "Baby Ballerinas."

When René Blum passed control of the company to Colonel W. de Basil, Balanchine again left the Ballets Russes. This time he formed his own company, Les Ballets 1933, with the financial backing of Edward James and Diaghilev's former secretary and companion Boris Kochno as an advisor. The company lasted only a couple of months in 1933, 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.

It was after a performance by Les Ballets 1933 that Lincoln Kirstein, an American arts patron with a dream of establishing a ballet company in the U.S., met and quickly persuaded Balanchine to move to the United States. By October of that year, Balanchine had landed overseas for the first time and launched his influence on the character of American dance.

America

Upon arriving in the United States, Balanchine insisted that his first project would be to establish a ballet school, and with the support of Lincoln Kirstein and Edward M.M. Warburg, the School of American Ballet opened its doors to students on January 2, 1934, less than three months after Balanchine arrived in the U.S. The students premiered Serenade at the Warburg's summer estate later that year.

During the 1930s and 1940s, in between his ballet activities, Balanchine worked as a choreographer for musical theater (with such notables as Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Vernon Duke).

In 1935, a professional company was formed - the American Ballet. After failing to mount a tour, the company began performing at the Metropolitan Opera House. After being allowed to stage only two dance performances (Orfeo and Eurydice in 1936, and an evening of dance choreographed to the music of Igor Stravinsky in 1937), Balanchine moved the company to Hollywood in 1938. The company reconvened as the American Ballet Caravan and toured North and South America, although it too folded after several years.

Balanchine served as resident choreographer for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo from 1944 to 1946, but soon formed a new dance company - the Ballet Society -again with the help of Lincoln Kirstein. With the success of several performances, the company was offered the opportunity to work at New York City Center for Music and Drama as the resident company. With that arrangement in place, Ballet Society 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, is largely responsible for making the ballet a Christmas tradition in the United States.

Balanchine and Farrell in Don Quixote

In the 1960s, Balanchine fell deeply in love with the young and talented Suzanne Farrell. He created many ballets for her, including Don Quixote (with him playing the Don, and Farrell, Dulcinea), and the Diamonds section of the full-length ballet Jewels. The romance suffered however, because Balanchine was still married to LeClerq, and Farrell, a Roman Catholic, refused to consummate the romance. Farrell's position in the company was the cause of consternation — some ballerinas, like his former wife, Maria Tallchief, quit, citing Farrell as the reason. Balanchine obtained a Mexican divorce from LeClerq, only to discover Farrell had married a NYCB dancer Paul Meija. Heartbroken and enraged, Balanchine and Farrell became increasingly estranged, and in 1970 both Farrell and her husband quit the company. They then moved to Brussels and joined Maurice Bejart's dance company. In 1975, Farrell returned to the NYCB.

George Balanchine received the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 1978, the first year the awards were given.

In 1983, Balanchine died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, diagnosed only after his death. He first showed symptoms in 1978 when he began losing his balance while dancing. As the disease progressed his equilibrium, eyesight, and hearing deteriorated. By 1982 he was incapacitated, and he died the following year at the age of seventy-nine.

Choreographed works

for the Ballets Russes:

• Le Chant du Rossignol (The Song of the Nightingale) (1925)
• Jack in the Box (1926)
• Pastorale (1926)
• Barabau (1926)
• La Chatte (1927)
• Le Triomphe de Neptune (1927)
• Apollo (1928)
• The Prodigal son (1929)
• Le Bal (1929)
• Balustrade (1941)

for the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo:

• Cotillon (1932)
• Concurrence (1932)
• Danses Concertantes (1944/1972)
• La Sonnambula (1946)

for Les Ballets:

• The Seven Deadly Sins (1933)
• Errante (1933)
• Les Songes (1933)
• Fastes (1933)

for the American Ballet:

• Alma Mater (1934)
• Les Songes (Dreams) (1934)
• Mozartiana (1934)
• Serenade (1935)
• Errante (1935)
• Reminiscence (1935)
• Jeu de Cartes (Card Game or The Card Party) (1937)
• Le Baiser de la Fée (The Fairy's Kiss) (1937)

for On Your Toes (a musical comedy by Richard Rodgers - Lorenz Hart):

• Princess Zenobia Ballet (1936)
• Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1936) - (this dramatic ballet served as the climax of this musical production and has subsequently been presented as a stand-alone piece; however, several of the sung numbers in the show featured dance routines as well, notably the title number).

for the American Ballet Caravan:

• Encounter (1936)
• Ballet Imperial (later referred to as the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2) (1941)
• Concerto Barocco (1941)

for the Ballet del Teatro de Colón:

• Mozart Violin Concerto (1942)

for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo:

• Song of Norway (1944)
• Danses Concertantes (1944)
• Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1944)
• Pas de Deux (Grand'adagio) (1945)
• The Night Shadow (1946)
• Raymonda (1946)

for the Ballet Theatre:

• Waltz Academy (1944)

for the Ballet Society:

• The Four Temperaments (1946)
• L'enfant et Les Sortilèges (The Spellbound Child) (1946)
• Haieff Divertimento (1947)
• Symphonie Concertante (1947)
• Orpheus (1948)

for the Paris Opera Ballet:

• Palais de Cristal (later called Symphony in C) (1947)

for the Ballet Theatre:

• Theme and Variations (1947)

for the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas:

• Minkus Pas De Trois (1948)

for the New York City Ballet:

• La Sonnambula (1946)
• Bourrée Fantasque (1949)
• Firebird (with Jerome Robbins) (1949)
• Sylvia Pas De Deux (1950)
• Swan Lake (after Lev Ivanov) (1951)
• La Valse (1951)
• Harlequinade (1952)
• Harlequinade Pas De Deux (1952)
• Scotch Symphony (1952)
• Valse Fantaisie (1953/1967)
• The Nutcracker (1954)
• Ivesiana (1954)
• Western Symphony (1954)
• Glinka Pas De Trois (1955)
• Pas De Dix (1955)
• Divertimento No. 15 (1956)
• Allegro Brillante (1956)
• Agon (1957)
• Square Dance (1957)
• Gounod Symphony (1958)
• Stars and Stripes (a ballet in 5 "campaigns") (1958)
• Episodes (1959)
• Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (1960)
• Monumentum pro Gesualdo (1960)
• Donizetti Variations (1960)
• Liebeslieder Walzer (1960)
• Raymonda Variations (1961)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962)
• Bugaku (1963)
• Meditation (1963)
• Movements for Piano and Orchestra (1963)
• Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (1966)
• Jewels (1967)
  • Emeralds
  • Rubies
  • Diamonds
• La Source (1968)
• Who Cares (1970)
• Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3 (1970)
• Stravinsky Festival (1972):
  • Pulcinella (with Jerome Robbins)
  • Stravinsky Violin Concerto
  • Symphony in 3 movements
  • Duo Concertant
  • Lost Sonata
  • Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fée"
  • Choral Variations on Bach's "Vom Himmel Hoch"
  • Danses Concertantes
  • Scherzo Á La Russe
• Cortège Hongrois (1973)
• Coppélia (1974)
• Variations Pour Une Porte Et Un Soupir (1974)
• Ravel Festival (1975):
  • Sonatine
  • Tzigane
  • Le Tombeau de Couperin
  • Pavane
  • Shéhérazade
  • Gaspard de la Nuit
  • Rapsodie Espagnole
• The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1975)
• Tzigane (1975)
• Chaconne (1976)
• Union Jack (1976)
• Vienna Waltzes (1977)
• Ballo della Regina (1978)
• Kammermusik No. 2 (1978)
• Robert Schuman's Davidsbündlertänze (1980)
• Walpurgisnacht Ballet (1980)
• Tchaikovsky Festival (1981)
  • Garland Dance
  • Mozartiana

for the New York City Opera:

• Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1979)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• The Balanchine Foundation
• School of American Ballet
• New York City Ballet

George Balanchine Portal

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• George Balanchine  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "George Balanchine"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.