Choreographer: George Balanchine

George Balanchine

Choreographer

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One of the greatest and most well known choreographers in the history of ballet is American-born Russian George Balanchine. Another one of the stars of the Imperial Ballet School, he started his career there at the age of nine. Grigory Grigorevich, director of the school at the time, took care of the young Balanchine while he pursued his studies there because he was such a long way from home. In 1917 during the Russian Revolution, Balanchine lived with Grigorevich while the school was closed. He eventually graduated upon it's reopening in 1921. After his graduation, he became a member of the Kirov Ballet. Balanchine created his own company in the years to come called The Young Ballet. His company only performed his first works of choreography at small, unknown shows. He then began choreographing for the Marinsky Theater, but his choreography was so cutting-edge and controversial that the theater decided to let him go. Later, in the year 1924, Balanchine, along with such names as Tamara Geva and Alexandra Danilova, formed the Soviet State Dancers which frequently toured Germany and ended up situating themselves permanently in England. After the Soviet State Dancers failed to gain popularity in England, Balanchine began choreographing for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. After Diaghilev's death, Balanchine started choreographing ballets abroad in such places as Denmark and Paris. In 1933, Balanchine formed another company, Les Ballets. Unfortunately, this company was not accepted because of his different displays of choreography and the ballet company relinquished it's existence soon after. Throughout the rest of his career, Balanchine taught and choreographed for the School of American Ballet, the New York City Ballet, and Broadway among others. Balanchine had a way with women, marrying and divorcing five different females. Eventually, George Balanchine contracted what is now known as Mad Cow Disease and passed away. Balanchine continued choreographing his interesting ballets up until his death in April of 1983.


The History of the Russian Ballet, The Vaganova Academy, The Bolshoi Theater, The Marinsky Theater, Anna Pavlova, Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova, Natalya Dudinskaya, Vaslav Nijinsky, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Marius Petipa, Michel Fokine, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, The Music of Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Image Sources, Works Consulted

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