George Balanchine - Ballets Russes, America, Choreographies

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.

In 1913 at the age of nine, Balanchine enrolled in the Imperial Ballet School, principal school of the Imperial Ballet, where he studied under Pavel Gerdt and Samuil Andrianov (Pavel's son-in-law). After graduating with honors in 1921, Balanchine enrolled in the Petrograd Conservatory in tandem with his corps de ballet duties at the The State Academic Theatre for Opera and Ballet (formerly the State Theater of Opera and Ballet).

While still in his teens, Balanchine choreographed his first work, a pas de deux called La Nuit (1920, music by Anton Rubinstein).

Ballets Russes

Diaghilev soon promoted Balanchine to balletmaster of the company, and allowed him to develop his own choreography. Between 1924 and Diaghilev's death in 1929, Balanchine created nine ballets, as well as smaller choreographies.

After Diaghilev's death, the Ballets Russes fell into disarray. Balanchine began to stage dances for the Cochran Revues in London, and was retained by the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen as guest ballet master. He returned to the Ballets Russes when it settled in Monte Carlo, resuming his post as ballet master for the new Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, and choreographed three ballets: Cotillon, La Concurrence, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. de Basil, Balanchine again left the Ballets Russes. This time he formed his own company, Les Ballets 1933, with the financial backing of Edward James and Diaghilev's former secretary and companion Boris Kochno as an advisor.

It was after a performance by Les Ballets 1933 that Lincoln Kirstein, an American arts patron with a dream of establishing a ballet company in the U.S., met and quickly persuaded Balanchine to move to the United States.

America

Upon arriving in the United States, Balanchine insisted that his first project would be to establish a ballet school, and with the support of Lincoln Kirstein and Edward M.M. Warburg, the School of American Ballet opened its doors to students on January 2nd, 1934, less than 3 months after Balanchine arrived in the U.S. The students premiered Serenade at the Warburg's summer estate later that year.

During the 1930s and 1940s, in between his ballet activities, Balanchine worked as a choreographer for musical theater (with such notables as Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and Vernon Duke).

In 1935, a professional company was formed - the American Ballet.

Balanchine served as resident choreographer for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo from 1944 to 1946, but soon formed a new dance company - the Ballet Society -again with the help of Lincoln Kirstein. With that arrangement in place, Ballet Society became the New York City Ballet in 1948.

The 1954 staging of The Nutcracker is largely responsible for making the ballet a Christmas tradition in the United States. He created many ballets for her, including Don Quixote (with him playing the Don, and Farrell, Dulcinea), and the Diamonds section of the full-length ballet Jewels.

After his divorce from Tamara Geva, Balanchine married and divorced three more times.

Choreographies

for the Ballets Russes:

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) Balustrade (1941)

for the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo:

Cotillon (1932) Concurrence (1932) Danses Concertantes (1944/1972) La Sonnambula (1946)

for Les Ballets:

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 (Card Game or The Card Party) (1937) Le Baiser de la Fée (The Fairy's Kiss) (1937)

for On Your Toes (a musical revue by Richard Rodgers - Lorenz Hart):

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).

for the American Ballet Caravan:

Encounter (1936) Ballet Imperial (later referred to as the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2) (1941) Concerto Barocco (1941)

for the Ballet del Teatro de Colón:

Mozart Violin Concerto (1942)

for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo:

Song of Norway (1944) Danses Concertantes (1944) Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1944) Pas de Deux (Grand'adagio) (1945) The Night Shadow (1946) Raymonda (1946)

for the Ballet Theatre:

Waltz Academy (1944)

for the 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 (later called Symphony in C) (1947)

for the Ballet Theatre:

Theme and Variations (1947)

for the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas:

Minkus Pas De Trois (1948)

for the New York City Ballet:

La Sonnambula (1946) Bourrée Fantasque (1949) Firebird (with Jerome Robbins) (1949) Sylvia Pas De Deux (1950) Swan Lake (after Lev Ivanov) (1951) La Valse (1951) Harlequinade (1952) Harlequinade Pas De Deux (1952) Scotch Symphony (1952) Valse Fantaisie (1953/1967) George Balanchine's 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 5 "campaigns") (1958) Episodes (1959) Tchaikovsky 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) Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet (1966) Jewels (1967) Emeralds Rubies Diamonds La Source (1968) Who Cares (1970) Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3 (1970) Stravinsky Festival (1972): Pulcinella (with Jerome Robbins) Stravinsky Violin Concerto Symphony in 3 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) Tzigane (1975) Chaconne (1976) Union Jack (1976) Vienna Waltzes (1977) Ballo della Regina (1978) Kammermusik No. 2 (1978) Robert Schuman's Davidsbündlertänze (1980) Walpurgisnacht Ballet (1980) Tchaikovsky Festival (1981) Garland Dance Mozartiana

for the New York City Opera:

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1979)