George Balanchine Essay -- Biography Biographies

George Balanchine One of the most important and influential people in the world of ballet is George Balanchine. He became a legend long before he died. He brought the standards of dance up to a level that had never been seen before, and he created a new audience for ballet. Balanchine was one of the greatest and most prolific choreographers in ballet history, choreographing at least 300 ballets; he was rivaled in quantity only by Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa. At the age of nine he started training at the Imperial School in St. Petersburg. He rarely saw his family because they lived far away and he became the ward of Grigory Grigorevich, who was in charge of the school. There Balanchine performed his first role as cupid in Sleeping Beauty. During the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Imperial School closed and the students were put out on the street. Balanchine was cut off from his family in the Caucasus, and was taken in to live with Mr. Grigorevich. The school did reopen and Balanchine graduated in 1921. He then joined the Soviet State Ballet. Upon graduation Balanchine married Geva, a fellow student whom he had met in the ballroom dancing class. Geva described her husband as a cross between a poet and a general. In order to have his choreography seen, Blanchine organized a small company called The Young Ballet, to perform at halturas (bread and butter jobs). At the Maryinsky, Balanchine had been assigned to stage the procession in Rimski-Korsakoff's opera Coq d'Or, and what he devised, although beautiful, shattered tradition. The company tried to re-train him, but he wouldn't conform. His choreography continued to be controversial, so the board at the Maryinsky Theater dis... ...he marriage had never been consummated. For Tanaquil LeClerq, his fourth wife (whom he married in 1952) he created La Valze (1951), Bourrà ©e Fantasque (1949) Western Symphony and Ivesiana (both in1954). Her career ended after she was tragically stricken with polio. Before their divorce was finalized Balanchine became infatuated with his final protà ©gà ©, Suzanne Farrell, for whom he created many of his last great ballets: Mozartiana (1981), Don Quixote (1965), and Diamonds in Jewels (1967). After Balanchine recovered from a mysterious illness, he continued to work until his death. He died of Jakob-Creutzfeldt syndrome, on April 30, 1983. Balanchine's funeral was held in a Russian Orthodox Church and that night the New York City Ballet performed as scheduled. Balanchine’s repretare is still widely performed and he has made a mjor impact on the world of ballet.