Balanchine Ballets: 5 Ballets by George Balanchine

George Balanchine (1904–1983) was a seminal twentieth-century Georgian-American ballet choreographer. Balanchine worked in Hollywood and on Broadway, founded the New York City Ballet, and collaborated with composers Igor Stravinsky and Richard Rodgers, among others.

Balanchine was a prolific ballet choreographer globally.

• Early years: Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1904, Balanchine made his dancing debut at age ten, playing a cupid in the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet Company’s production of The Sleeping Beauty. As a child, he studied music composition at the Imperial Ballet School, granting him a musical foundation that allowed him to communicate with foremost composers later in life clearly.
• Choreography: While still an adolescent, he choreographed his first pas de deux, a dance duet called La Nuit (1920). The duet notably had the ballet dancers barefoot and marked the start of his definitive minimalistic, more experimental style.
• Ballets Russes: Balanchine then moved to Paris, where the impresario Sergei Diaghilev invited Balanchine to choreograph for the Ballets Russes; he was later promoted to ballet master for this leading European ballet company.
• Signature style: One of his most famous works was Apollo and the Muses (1928), a collaboration with Stravinsky that combined classical ballet and Greek myth. With its bare design and opportunity for two dance solos for the male lead, this piece originated the neoclassical ballet style. Another notable work for Diaghilev’s company was The Prodigal Son (1929).
• Finding success: After Diaghilev died, Balanchine was hired to choreograph revues for Ballet Russes. Balanchine co-founded the short-lived company Les Ballets 1933 with Boris Kochno.
• The School of American Ballet: Balanchine moved to the United States in 1933 and started the School of American Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein to train students in his dancing style. In the US he choreographed On Your Toes (1936).
• Ballet Society: He relocated to Hollywood for a short stint to choreograph five films before founding New York City’s Ballet Society in 1946 with the help of Kirstein. That year, he staged The Four Temperaments for the Society.
• Monaco: From 1944 to 1946, Balanchine was called in to be the artistic director of the Original Ballet Russe (formerly Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo) to revitalize the company. There, he choreographed hits such as Raymonda and La Sonnambula.
• New York City Ballet: In 1948, Balanchine and Kirstein co-founded the New York City Ballet (NYCB). At that company, Balanchine served as artistic director for 35 years and choreographed many acclaimed works including Orpheus (1948), Firebird (1949), Agon (1957), Allegro Brillante (1956), Stars and Stripes (1958), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1962), Don Quixote (1965),Who Cares? (1970), Vienna Waltzes (1977), and Mozartiana (1981), among others.
• Festival: In 1972, Balanchine produced the inaugural NYCB festival, a collaboration with Stravinsky to celebrate the music of the company’s repertory. The festival lineup included Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, Danses Concertantes, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Duo Concertant, among others.
• Legacy: Balanchine died at age seventy-nine from angina pectoris. The year he died, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. On the evening of his death, his company went on with performances for Divertimento No. 15 and Symphony in C at Lincoln Center in New York City. Following his death, the George Balanchine Trust was established in 1987 to preserve Balanchine's creative works and licensing. An influential figure, he is referred to as the father of the American ballet.

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