Why I Care....

"I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance." -George Balanchine

Stepping away from George for just a sec, this class really opened my eyes to the history, growth, and influences that are carried within this artistic field. I was someone who knew very little when it came to the history of dance, let alone all the amazing people who've molded this form into such a exhilarating art. With that said, I knew very little about George Balanchine prior to this semester. I had heard his name a few times here and there but couldn't say much else about the man. After studying George for the past couple of months, I can easily say I am a pretty big fan and admirer for what he has contributed to the world of dance. He was so dedicated to his art and his work ethic was unbelievable, hence the 400+ work history behind the man. He brought forth a new, experimental style to ballet to which became most of what people see as American Ballet still to this day. He pushed the boundaries and crossed the line in his exploration of the classical technique and made it his own. His musicality was like that of no other and his love/knowledge for music put him in a league all his own. Got to say, those piano lessons as a little boy definitely payed off. Not too mention he established one of the worlds most renown Ballet company's and school right in New York City. I care because I need to see and learn about people like Balanchine to give me that greater drive and ambition for this art. I care because dance wouldn't be what it is today without George or any of the great artist I've now become introduced too.

Review of Balanchine's "Nutcracker" from 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/arts/dance/29nutcracker.html

Balanchine's Biggest Contributions to the World of Dance

Balanchine himself wrote,

"We must first realize that dancing is an absolutely independent art, not merely a secondary accompanying one. I believe that it is one of the great arts. . . . The important thing in ballet is the movement itself. A ballet may contain a story, but the visual spectacle . . . is the essential element. The choreographer and the dancer must remember that they reach the audience through the eye. It's the illusion created which convinces the audience, much as it is with the work of a magician."

In 1970, U.S. News and World Report attempted to summarize Balanchine's achievements as: "The greatest choreographer of our time, George Balanchine is responsible for the successful fusion of modern concepts with older ideas of classical ballet and the free-flowing U.S. dance forms stimulated him to develop new techniques in dance design and presentation, which have altered the thinking of the world of dance."

Often George was known for working with modern music and the simplest of themes, he has created ballets that are celebrated for their imagination and originality. His company, the New York City Ballet, is the leading dance group of the United States and one of the great companies of the world. An essential part of the success of Balanchine's group has been the training of his dancers, which he has supervised since the founding of his School of American Ballet in 1934. Balanchine chose to shape talent locally, and he has said that the basic structure of the American dancer was responsible for inspiring some of the striking lines of his compositions. Balanchine is not only gifted in creating entirely new productions, his choreography for classical works has been equally fresh and inventive. He has made American dance the most advanced and richest in choreographic development in the world today.

**A fun quote posted by The Washington Post claims: "Balanchine is to ballet, what Tiger Woods is to golf: so far above the competition as to be playing a different game."

To creating a completely new style and form of ballet, to work in films, opera's, broadway, theater, founding a world-reknown Ballet company and school, George Balanchine is a legend and a true master of dance!

Interview/ George Balanchine's "Swan Lake"

An extended interview with New York City Ballet dancer Marika Anderson, talking about her role in George Balanchine's Swan Lake.

World Events

Living predominately through most of the 20th Century, George grew up in a crazy, eventful time, surrounded by significant events, disasters, inventions, advances, and change. George spent half of his life in Russia and the other half in the states, predominately New York City. Growing up as a kid in Russia, George saw such events occur as the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, the Russian Revolution of 1905, which is otherwise known as “Bloody Sunday”, World War I, and the foundation of the NAACP in 1909. On a more lighter side, these were times when man also say the development of plastic, the Boy Scouts foundation formed, and the invention of Corn Flakes! 

Bloody Sunday

Balanchine moved to the States with Mr. Kristien in 1933. In the next handful of years Balanchine would witness the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party with the Hindenburg Disaster taking place in 1937 and The Night of Broken Glass in 1938. In the next year George would see the beginning of World War II. 

The Manhattan Project would begin in 1941, which was used as a secret code name for the development of the atomic bomb. This was followed by the by the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Aside from wars and worldwide conflicts, this was also a time for civil rights and equality for all. The Civil Right Movement was a fast growing topic during this period and we began to see significant/ historical events that would include Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, JFK, etc. 

Pearl Harbor

Towards the end of Balanchine’s life, the world showed no sign of slowing down. In 1977, The Northeast Blackout took place to which New York state and many others would carry on with out power or electricity of 12 hours. In relation, New York City would see yet another blackout in 1977. Also, Vietnam would take place just around the time of George’s death in 1983.

 
George had much to live through and plenty to witness in his life, both good and bad. Hard to deny that such events wouldn’t have an impact on the person you became and/or the dreams you had.

A life time of influences and collaborations

George has a long history and background in this field. Credited as the foremost contemporary choreography in the world of ballet and having revamped and stylized a new ballet form, It only seems natural for George Balanchine to have had have many influences/collaborations during his life time. Influences that guided him towards the artist he became and the achievements he reached. One of Balanchine’s biggest influences/collaborations would be when he meet Boston-born dance connoisseur Lincoln Kristein in 1933. Kirstein had seen George in a performance of Georges’ then established traveling company, “Les Ballets”, with whom he hired Boris Kochnoand as artistic advisor, shared his interest in establishing a school for Ballet in America, to which George found interesting as well. The school and performing company these men created is knows today as The New York City Ballet and is one of the most pristine ballet schools/companies in the world. 

Growing up, George had a great musical influence form his father, a Georgian Composer who taught George to play the piano from a early age. Meanwhile, as a child,  George studied at the St. Petersburg's rigorous Imperial Theater School and later on, the Petrograd Conservatory of Music. It was in 1924 that George meet and was asked to join the company created by the very own, Serge Diaghilev. In the next handful of years George became head choreographer for Diaghliev’s company and really saw him self grow into the artist we all know today. 

 
George is also know to have worked in films along side Lydia Lopokov, to have performed with Tamara Geva, Alexandra Danilova, and Nicholas Efimov. (this was prior to his meeting with Diaghliev’s in 1924). When George had established his first company, “Les Ballets” (as mentioned earlier) he worked with many artist and presented many collaborations. For the company's first-and only-season, he created six new ballets, in collaboration with such leading artistic figures as Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (The Seven Deadly Sins), artist Pavel Tchelitchew (Errante), and composers Darius Milhaud (Les Songes) and Henri Sauget (Fastes). 

Due to a tragic knee injury that almost ruined Balanchine’s career in 1929, he began to heavily focus on choreographing aside from performing. It now doubt, however, that Mr. Balanchine has and was a huge influence on the world of Ballet and what we see today in performances.   

Mr. Balanchine

George Balanchine was born Georgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze in St. Petersburg, Russia, on January 22, 1904. He is the son of Meliton and Maria Balanchivadze. George was surrounded by music and artistic influences from a very early age. His father was a composer. Balanchine studied the piano as a child and considered a career in the military, which his mother encouraged. However, at the age of ten, he entered the Imperial Ballet School, where he learned the precise and athletic Russian dancing style.

George Balanchine

In 1921 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music to study piano while continuing work in ballet at the State Academy of Opera and Ballet. He used a group of dancers from the school to present his earliest choreographed works. One of the students was Tamara Gevergeyeva, to which Balanchine married in 1922. She was the first of his four wives, all of whom were dancers.

  The manager of the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, discovered Balanchine in 1925 in Paris, France. When Diaghilev's most famous choreographer, Nijinska, left the group, Balanchine took her place. At the age of 21 he became the main choreographer of the most famous ballet company in the world. Balanchine did 10 ballets for Diaghilev, and it was Diaghilev who changed the Russian's name to Balanchine. When Diaghilev died and the company broke up in 1929, Balanchine moved from one company to another until, in 1933, he formed his own company, Les Ballets.

In 1933 Balanchine met Lincoln Kirstein, a young, rich American, who invited him to head the new School of American Ballet in New York City. With the School of American Ballet and later with the New York City Ballet, Balanchine established himself as one of the world's leading classical choreographers. He brought standards of excellence and quality performance to the American ballet culture, which up to that point had been a sad/weak copy of the greater European companies.

Works that Balanchine created, while working at the Metropolitan, would later revolutionize the American classical ballet style, included: Apollo, The Card Party, and The Fairy's Kiss. Balanchine's style proved a bit too daring for the Metropolitan, leading to a conflict that ended the working relationship in 1938. Over the next several years he worked on Broadway shows, films, and two ballets: Ballet Imperial and Concerto Barocco, which were created in 1941 for the American Ballet Caravan.

George Balanchine taking a curtain call following a performance of New York City Ballet.

In 1946 Balanchine established a new company, The Ballet Society. The performance of Balanchine's Orpheus was so successful that his company was invited to establish permanent residence at the New York City Center. So it did and was renamed the New York City Ballet. Finally Balanchine had a school, a company, and a permanent theater. He developed the New York City Ballet into the leading classical company in America and to some critics, in the world. Here he created some of his most enduring works, including his Nutcracker and Agon.

Balanchine died in New York City on April 30, 1983.