George Balanchine
GEORGY MELITONOVICH BALANCHIVADZE
ჯორჯ ბალანჩინი
Ballet dancer and outstanding choreographer of Georgian origin, who laid the foundation for American ballet and modern neoclassical ballet art in general.
Born on January 9, 1904 in St. Petersburg in the family of the Georgian composer Meliton Balanchivadze.
In 1914-1921. studied at the Petrograd Theater School, in 1920-1923 - at the Petrograd State Conservatory.
Already at the school he staged dance numbers and composed music. Upon graduation, he worked at the Petrograd Opera and Ballet Theatre. Staged dances for the Young Ballet and the Maly Opera Theatre.
In 1924 he toured Germany as part of a group of artists who were accepted into the Russian Ballet troupe of Sergei Diaghilev in the same year. Here Balanchine composed in 1925-1929. ten ballets and dance numbers and staged them in many opera houses, including Monte Carlo (Monaco).
After the death of Diaghilev (1929), he worked for ballet revues, in the Royal Danish Ballet, in the troupe "Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo" founded in 1932.
In 1933 he headed the Ballet 1933 troupe. In the same year, at the invitation of the American philanthropist L. Kerstein, he moved to America. In 1934, together with Kerstein, he organized the School of American Ballet in New York and, on its basis, the American Ballet troupe.
Along with ballets, he staged many dance numbers in musicals and films.
From the late 1970s, Balanchine began to show signs of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. He died April 30, 1983 and is buried at Oakland Cemetery in New York, USA.
THEATER WORKS
Cupid - "Sleeping Beauty", P. Tchaikovsky,
Jean - "Javotte" by C. Saint-Saens.
Staged performances:
"Apollo Musagetne" to music by Igor Stravinsky;
The Prodigal Son to music by Sergei Prokofiev,
"Playing Cards" to music by Igor Stravinsky,
Orpheus to music by Igor Stravinsky,
"Agon" to music by Igor Stravinsky.
