George Balanchine
America has George Balanchine to thank for transforming ballet from the poor relation of the other arts into one with an American identity. Balanchine retained the technical rigor from traditional ballet, while changing the focus from elaborate sets and costumes to put attention on the dancer and the story. Balanchine's approach to a vast repertoire of work has now established contemporary ballet practice all over the world. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1904, Balanchine demonstrated an early affinity for music and dance. He studied dance at the Imperial Ballet School and, after the Russian Revolution, music at the new Petrograd Conservatory. With a group of fellow students, Balanchine created dance pieces that did not fit in with the current canon of Russian dance. During a tour of Europe in 1924, Balanchine met Sergei Diaghilev and was offered a position with the Ballets Russes. He accepted, leaving his life in Russia behind. He began to choreograph pieces for Ballet Russes, but after Diaghilev's death in 1929 the company disbanded. While short-lived, his new company Les Ballets, formed in 1933, allowed him to develop dance pieces and collaborate with the likes of Igor Stravinsky, Bertolt Brecht, and Kurt Weill. The American arts patron Lincoln Kirstein proposed that Balanchine come to the United States to found a ballet school and company. Thus began the School of American Ballet in 1934, and his company was invited to reside at the Metropolitan Opera. However, the Met's artistic leadership did not mesh with Balanchine's vision and he left in 1938. Without a permanent home, Balanchine toured several works, including Orpheus, and choreographed several musicals including Louisiana Purchase and Cabin in the Sky. His company found a home in 1948 at the New York City Center. The company became the New York City Ballet. The school and the company formed an influential and creative powerhouse where Balanchine was able to teach and choreograph works such as The Nutcracker (1954), Don Quixote (1965) and Union Jack (1976). In 1978, Balanchine received the first Kennedy Centers Honors Award for his life's work. Balanchine died in 1983. The Balanchine Trust preserves his legacy and supervises the staging of his works, which continue to be performed all over the world.
