Georges Balanchine

Georges Balanchine (born Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivazde, St. Petersburg, Russia, 22 January 1904; died New York, 30 April 1983) was one of the most influential ballet dancers and choreographers of the 20th century.

He studied at Petrograd Ballet School, 1914-21, and becme a member of the State Academic Theatre for Opera and Ballet. He created his first ballets in 1920, and was soon in trouble for his unconventional choreography. He was part of a tour to germany in 1924, where he was seen by Sergei Diaghilev who employed him and in 1925 made him his chief choreographer. Balanchine became a close friend of Igor Stravinsky, choreographing his ballet Apollon musagete in 1928.

After Diaghilev's death, Balanchine became artistic director of Les Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo. He went to the USA in 1933, founding the School of American Ballet and the American Ballet. The latter was the resident dance company at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1935-8, including a Stravinsky Festival in 1937, but was then disbanded as Balanchine wished to concentrate on working on Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. His contributions to the plays Babes in Arms (1937) and Where's Charley (1948) and the films The Goldwyn Follies (1938) and I was an Adventuress (1940) were especially noteworthy.

However, he re-formed American Ballet in 1941 and toured South America. In 1948 he became artistic director of the New York City Ballet and began to produce the choreography for a long series of ballets. He took the company to London in 1950 and the USSR in 1962.

References

• Koegler, Horst, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet, 2nd ed (1987, ISBN 0-19-311330-9), Oxford University Press pp.30-1
• Halliwell, Leslie, Who's Who in the Movies, 3rd ed. 2003 p.30
• Green, Stanley, Broadway Musicals Show by Show, 1987, p.301