[9], As a child, Balanchine was not particularly interested in ballet, but his mother insisted that he audition with his sister Tamara, who shared her mother's interest in the art. Balanchine married five times, each lasting less than twenty years. There was little romance or passion outside of their working relationship, and with Balanchine rejecting Tallchief's desire for children, the two … He was the co-founder and balletmaster of the New York City Ballet. He graduated in 1921 and subsequently attended the Petrograd State Conservatory of Music, leaving the conservatory after three years. Balanchine relocated his company to Hollywood during 1938, where he rented a white two-story house with "Kolya", Nicholas Kopeikine, his "rehearsal pianist and lifelong colleague",[18] on North Fairfax Avenue not far from Hollywood Boulevard. George Balanchine (/ˈbælən(t)ʃiːn, ˌbælənˈ(t)ʃiːn/;[1] born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; Georgian: გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was an American ballet choreographer who was one of the most influential 20th-century choreographers. [2] Styled as the father of American ballet,[3] he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years. Balanchine insisted that his first project in the United States would be to establish a ballet school because he wanted to develop dancers who had strong technique along with his particular style. "When people ask me to explain about George Balanchine and myself, I can't put it into words. [4], Balanchine was born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, son of Georgian opera singer and composer Meliton Balanchivadze, one of the founders of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre and later the culture minister of the short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia, which became independent in 1918 but was later subsumed into the Soviet Union. He reconvened the company as the American Ballet Caravan and toured with it throughout North and South America, but it folded after several years. The night of his death, the company went on with its scheduled performance, which included Divertimento No. Among his new works, during 1928 in Paris, Balanchine premiered Apollon musagète (Apollo and the muses) in a collaboration with Stravinsky; it was one of his most innovative ballets, combining classical ballet and classical Greek myth and images with jazz movement. During these years, he worked with composers such as Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Erik Satie, and Maurice Ravel, and artists who designed sets and costumes, such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, and Henri Matisse, creating new works that combined all the arts. 2. His other famous works with New York City Ballet are popular today and are performed in the Lincoln Center by New York City Ballet: Mozartiana, Apollo, Orpheus, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. The school of American Ballet became and is now a home for dancers of New York City Ballet as well as companies from all over the world. LeClercq grew up in New York City and began taking ballet lessons at age four. [11] Apollo is regarded as the original neoclassical ballet. As the disease progressed, his equilibrium, eyesight, and hearing deteriorated. Her dancing career ended abruptly when she was stricken with polio in Copenhagen during the company's European tour in 1956. “A muse of George Balanchine, she severed ties with him in the early 1970s, moving to Brussels and dancing with the Ballet of the 20th century.” It goes on: “Though Balanchine divorced [Tanaquil] LeClerq to pursue Farrell, she instead married fellow dancer Paul Mejia. Tanaquil LeClercq, versatile American ballet dancer, remembered largely for her work in association with George Balanchine, to whom she was married from 1952 to 1969. In 1947, Balanchine brought his wife home to the New York City Ballet. Early Years . Ballet and Modern Dance. Her marriage to George Balanchine ended in divorce in 1969. The couple’s marriage was annulled in 1952. He continued to work with contemporary composers such as Paul Hindemith, from whom he commissioned a score in 1940 for The Four Temperaments. In 1923, Balanchine married Tamara Geva, a sixteen-year-old dancer. After his divorce from Geva, Balanchine was with Alexandra Danilova from 1926 through 1933. George Balanchine was a homeless exile from Russia, who by the age of 29 had undergone privation and suffered serious illness, and who had no immediate prospects after the … Balanchine's brother Andria Balanchivadze instead followed his father's love for music and became a composer in Soviet Georgia. In 1922, George Balanchine married a 15-year-old ballet student named Tamara Gevergeyeva. After several successful performances, the most notable featuring the ballet Orpheus created in collaboration with Stravinsky and sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi, the City of New York offered the company residency at the New York City Center. 15 and Symphony in C at Lincoln Center.[20]. George Balanchine Way is a segment of West 63rd Street (located between Columbus Avenue and Broadway) in New York City that was renamed in his honor in June 1990. In his last years, Balanchine suffered from angina pectoris and underwent heart bypass surgery. On a 1924 visit to Germany with the Soviet State Dancers, Balanchine, his wife, Tamara Geva, and dancers Alexandra Danilova and Nicholas Efimov fled to Paris, where there was a large Russian community. Balanchine extended the traditions of classical ballet. Among his new works for the company were Danses Concertantes, a pure dance piece to music by Stravinsky, and Night Shadow, revived under the title La Sonnambula, the haunting tale of a poet who falls in love with a mysterious and alluring sleepwalker. [9]:23 She was eleven years younger than Meliton and rumored to have been his former housekeeper, although "she had at least some culture in her background" as she could play piano well. A monument at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre was dedicated in Balanchine's memory. George Balanchine was one of the 20th century’s most famous choreographers, he was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on January 22nd, 1904. In 1922 18 year old Balanchine married 15 year old Tamara Geva. Third Edition. Episodes of Live From Lincoln Center feature Lincoln Center's resident artistic organizations, most notably the New York Philharmonic. Apollo brought the male dancer to the forefront, giving him two solos within the ballet. This was followed by another duet, Enigma, with the dancers in bare feet rather than ballet shoes. George's brother, Andria Balanchivadze (1906–1992), became a well-known Georgian composer. He married and divorced three more times, all to women who were his dancers: Vera Zorina (December 1938 – 1946), Maria Tallchief (1946–1952), and Tanaquil LeClercq (1952–1969). Suzanne Farrell (born August 16, 1945) is an American ballerina and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 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