George Balanchine

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George Balanchine (born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; January 22, 1904 - April 30, 1983) was a choreographer. 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.

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, 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. Balanchine was invited to America in 1933 by a young arts patron named Lincoln Kirstein, and together they founded the School of American Ballet. Along with Kirstein, Balanchine also co-founded the New York City Ballet (NYCB).

Video George Balanchine

Biography

Georgia and Russia

Balanchine was born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze (Georgian: ?????? ????????? ?? ???????????) 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 and later the culture minister of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, which became independent in 1918 but was later subsumed into the Soviet Union. The rest of the Georgian side of Balanchine's family comprised largely artists and soldiers. Little is known of Balanchine's Russian, maternal side. His mother, Meliton's second wife, Maria Nikolayevna Vasilyeva, was fond of ballet and viewed it as a form of social advancement from the lower reaches of St. 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.

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, on the other hand, was 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).

After graduating in 1921, Balanchine enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory 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 during 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 named La Nuit (1920, music by Anton Rubinstein). This was followed by another duet, Enigma, with the dancers in bare feet rather than ballet shoes. During 1923, with fellow dancers, Balanchine formed a small ensemble, the Young Ballet.

Ballets Russes

On a 1924 visit to Germany with the Soviet State Dancers, Balanchine, his wife, Tamara Geva, and dancers Alexandra Danilova and Nicholas Efimov fled to Paris, where there was a large Russian community. At this time, the impresario Sergei Diaghilev invited Balanchine to join the Ballets Russes as a choreographer.

Diaghilev soon promoted Balanchine to ballet master of the company and encouraged his choreography. Between 1924 and Diaghilev's death in 1929, Balanchine created nine ballets, as well as lesser works. During these years, he worked with composers such as Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, and Maurice Ravel, 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, utilizing 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.

Suffering a serious knee injury, Balanchine had to limit his dancing, effectively ending his performance career.

After Diaghilev's death, the Ballets Russes went bankrupt. Balanchine himself served as a resident choreographer of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.To earn money, Balanchine began to stage dances for Charles B. Cochran'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, a pure dance piece to music by Stravinsky; and Night Shadow, revived under the title La Sonnambula, the haunting tale of a poet who falls in love with a mysterious and alluring sleepwalker.

In 1931, with the help from financier Serge Denham, René Blum and Colonel Wassily de Basil formed the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a successor to Ballets Russes. The new company hired Leonide Massine and Balanchine as choreographers. Featured dancers included David Lichine and Tatiana Riabouchinska. In 1933, without consulting Blum, Col. de Basil dropped Balanchine after one year -- ostensibly because he thought that audiences preferred the works choreographed by Massine. Librettist Boris Kochno was also let go, while dancer Tamara Toumanova (a strong admirer of Balanchine's) 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 made arts more difficult to fund. Balanchine created several new works, including collaborations with composers Kurt Weill, 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 opened to students on January 2, 1934, less than 3 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 to music by Tchaikovsky at 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 for musical theater with such notables as Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Vernon Duke. Balanchine choreographed Broadway's On Your Toes, in 1936. This musical featured the ballet "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue," in which a tap dancer falls in love with a dance-hall girl. His choreography in musicals was unique at the time because as they furthered the plot of the story.

Relocation to West Coast

Balanchine relocated his company to Hollywood during 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 third wife. He reconvened the company as the American Ballet Caravan and toured with it throughout North and South 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 1955, 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 with New York City company are Firebird, Allegro Brilliante, Agon, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Episodes.

In 1967, Balanchine's ballet Jewels displayed specific characteristics of Balanchine's choreography. The corps dancers execute rapid footwork and precise movements. The choreography is difficult to execute and all dancers must do their jobs in order 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: Mozartian, Apollo, Orpheus, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Death

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. In his last years, Balanchine suffered from angina and underwent heart bypass surgery. 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.

Maps George Balanchine

Personal life

In 1923, Balanchine married Tamara Geva, a sixteen-year-old dancer. After his divorce from Tamara Geva, Balanchine was partnered with Alexandra Danilova from 1926 through 1933. 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 (1952-1969). He had no children by any of his marriages and no known offspring from any extramarital unions or other liaisons.

Biographer and intellectual historian Clive James observed that Balanchine, despite his creative genius and brilliance as a ballet choreographer, had his darker side. In his Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts (2007), James writes that:

the great choreographer ruled the New York City Ballet as a fiefdom, with the 'droit du seigneur' among his privileges. The older he became, the more consuming his love affairs with his young ballerinas ... When [ballerina Suzanne Farrell] fell in love with and married a young dancer, Balanchine dismissed her from the company, thereby injuring her career for a crucial decade.

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Legacy and honors

With his School of American Ballet, New York City Ballet, and 400 choreographed works, Balanchine transformed American dance and created modern ballet, developing a unique style with his dancers highlighted by brilliant speed and attack.

A monument at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre was dedicated in Balanchine's memory. A crater on Mercury was named in his honor.

Awards

1975 French Légion d'honneur

• 1978 Kennedy Center Honors
• 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"

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Selected Choreographed Works

For Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev

• 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)

For Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

• Cotillon (1932)
• Concurrence (1932)
• Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1932 and 1944)
• Balustrade (1941)
• Danses Concertantes (1944 and 1972)
• Song of Norway (1944)
• Pas de Deux (Grand adagio) (1945)
• La Sonnambula (1946)
• The Night Shadow (1946)
• Raymonda (1946)

For Les Ballets 1933

• 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 (variously, Card Game or The Card Party) (1937)
• Le Baiser de la Fée (originally titled The Fairy's Kiss) (1937)

For Broadway

• Ziegfeld Follies of 1936
  • Words without Music: A Surrealist Ballet, a production number for the singing and dancing ensemble
  • Night Flight, a solo for Harriet Hoctor
  • 5 A.M., a number for Josephine Baker and male dancers
• On Your Toes (1936), music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart; starring Tamara Geva and Ray Bolger
  • 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.

• Babes in Arms (1937), by Rodgers and Hart
• I Married an Angel (1938), by Rodgers and Hart; starring Vera Zorina
• The Boys from Syracuse (1938), by Rodgers and Hart
• Great Lady (1938), music by Frederick Loewe
• Keep Off the Grass (1940), a musical revue
• Louisiana Purchase (1940), music and lyrics by Irving Berlin; with William Gaxton and Vera Zorina
• Cabin in the Sky (1940), music by Vernon Duke, lyrics by John Latouche; starring Ethel Waters and Katherine Dunham, who collaborated with Balanchine on the choreography
• The Lady Comes Across (1942), by Duke and Latouche; a notable flop
• Rosalinda (1942), an operetta with music by Johann Strauss
• The Merry Widow (1943), an operetta with music by Franz Lehár
• What's Up? (1943), lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe
• Dream with Music (1944), a musical fantasy starring Vera Zorina
• Song of Norway (1944), an operetta based on the life and music of Edvard Grieg; Balanchine's most successful Broadway show
• Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston (1945), another flop
• The Chocolate Soldier (1947), an operetta with music by Oscar Straus
• Where's Charley? lyrics and music by Frank Loesser, a long-running show starring Ray Bolger
• Courtin' Time (1951), music and lyrics by Don Walker and Jack Lawrence
• House of Flowers (1954), music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Truman Capote and Harold Arlen; starring Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, and Juanita Hall; Balanchine's choreography was rearranged by Herbert Ross before the Broadway opening

For Hollywood

• The Goldwyn Follies (1938), with Vera Zorina and William Dollar as principal dancers
  • "Romeo and Juliet," with ballet dancers as the Capulets and tap dancers as the Montagues
  • "Water Nymph Ballet," in which Zorina rose from the depths of a pool
• On Your Toes (1939), the film version of the Broadway show, starring Vera Zorina and Eddie Albert
• I Was an Adventuress (1940), starring Vera Zorina
• Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), a wartime morale booster for military troops
  • "That Old Black Magic," sung by Johnny Johnston, danced by Vera Zorina
• Follow the Boys (1944), with Vera Zorina and George Raft

For American Ballet Caravan

• Ballet Imperial (1941; renamed Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1973)
• Concerto Barocco (1941)

For the Ballet del Teatro de Colón

• Mozart Violin Concerto (1942)

For Ballet Theatre

• Waltz Academy (1944)
• Theme and Variations (1947)

For 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 (renamed Symphony in C) (1947)

For Le Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas

• Pas de Trois Classique (also known as Minkus Pas de Trois) (1948)

For New York City Ballet

• La Sonnambula (1946)
• Bourrée Fantasque (1949)
• The Firebird (1949; later revised with Jerome Robbins)
• Sylvia Pas De Deux (1950)
• Swan Lake (after Lev Ivanov) (1951)
• La Valse (1951)
• Harlequinade Pas De Deux (1952)
• Metamorphoses (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 five "campaigns") (1958)
• Episodes (1959)
• Tschaikovsky 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)
• Harlequinade (1965)
• Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (1966)
• Jewels (1967)
  • Emeralds
  • Rubies
  • Diamonds
• La Source (1968)
• Who Cares? (1970)
• Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3 (1970)
• Stravinsky Festival (1972)
  • Pulcinella (with Jerome Robbins)
  • Stravinsky Violin Concerto
  • Symphony in Three 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)
• Chaconne (1976)
• Union Jack (1976)
• Vienna Waltzes (1977)
• Ballo della Regina (1978)
• Kammermusik No. 2 (1978)
• Robert Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze (1980)
• Walpurgisnacht Ballet (1980)
• Tschaikovsky Festival (1981)
  • Garland Dance from The Sleeping Beauty
  • Mozartiana
• Stravinsky Centennial Celebration (1982)
  • Élégie

For New York City Opera

• Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1979)

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Notable students

Over the decades Balanchine shared his artistic insights with several of his students including:

• Francisco Moncion
• Nicholas Magallanes

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See also

• Balanchine method
• List of Russian ballet dancers
• List of ballets by George Balanchine
• List of Eastern Bloc defectors
• Category: Ballets by George Balanchine

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References

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Further reading

• Taper, Bernard (1996). George Balanchine: A Biography. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20639-8. 
• Schorer, Suki (1999). On Balanchine Technique. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45060-2. 
• Joseph, Charles M. (2002). Stravinsky and Balanchine, A Journey of Invention. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08712-8. 
• Gottlieb, Robert (2004). George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-075070-7. 
• Goldner, Nancy (2008). Balanchine Variations. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 
• Goldner, Nancy (2011). More Balanchine Variations. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 

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External links

• George Balanchine at Encyclopædia Britannica
• George Balanchine on IMDb
• Official website George Balanchine Foundation
• George Balanchine Catalog, including premiere date, cast, collaborators, and synopsis for all choreographic works
• Official website George Balanchine Trust
• Official website NYCB
  • Official website SAB
• A discussion about the Balanchine Technique with Balanchine dancer Suzanne Farrell at a July 08, 2006 PillowTalk at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
• Firebird performed by Maria Tallchief and Michael Maule, Jacob's Pillow, 1951
  • Suzanne Farrell on Balanchine: More than Technique 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
• George Balanchine at Find a Grave
• Guide to George Balanchine archive at Houghton Library Harvard University

Articles

• [2] Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times, June 30, 2003
• "Keeper of the Jewels", Robert Gottlieb, The New York Review of Books, volume 55, number 15, October 9, 2008
• obituary, Anna Kisselgoff, Sunday New York Times, May 1, 1983

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