biography
| name: |
Balanchine, George
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| |
originally Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivadze
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pronunciation:
[baluhncheen]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1904–83)
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| biography:
| Ballet dancer and choreographer, born in St Petersburg, Russia. Trained at the School of Imperial Ballet and State Academy of Dance, he choreographed his first piece in 1922. During 1923–4 he was ballet master at Petrograd's experimental Maly Theatre, and while on a European tour with the Soviet State Dancers in 1924, he defected to the West. His choreography for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, created during 1925–9, included the masterworks Apollo and Prodigal Son. Before emigrating to America (1933), he created several ballets for European companies and for his own company, Les Ballets. With Lincoln Kirstein he formed the School of American Ballet (1934) and the American Ballet Company (1935), which staged his first American work, Serenade, the same year. After the company's financial failure (1938), Balanchine choreographed for a number of films and Broadway shows, including Cabin in the Sky (1940) and Song of Norway (1944), until Kirstein established the Ballet Society in 1946. Soon after the 1948 premiere of Orpheus, one of Balanchine's finest works, the company was renamed the New York City Ballet and given a permanent home at New York's City Centre. Often working with limited funding, he revolutionized classical ballet by creating stark, abstract, usually plotless ballets. Drawing on serious music, often Stravinsky's, his ballets emphasized ‘pure’ dance and ensemble work. By 1964, when the company moved to Lincoln Center, his reputation was at its peak. In later years he choreographed elaborate ‘story’ ballets such as Don Quixote, Coppelia, and the perennial favourite, The Nutcracker, demonstrating the remarkable range of his talents. Known for his incredible series of ‘Balanchine ballerinas’, he also created some of his most memorable roles for men. Long before he died, his over 200 works had gained him the reputation as the premier choreographer of the 20th-c. |
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