George Balanchine
| George Balanchine | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Georgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze January 22, 1904 St. Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Died | April 30, 1983 (aged 79) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease |
| Occupation | dancer, choreographer, actor, director |
| Years active | 1929–1983 |
| Spouse(s) |
Tamara Geva (1921–1926; divorced) Vera Zorina (1938–1946; divorced) Maria Tallchief (1946–1952; annulled) Tanaquil LeClercq (1952–1969; divorced) |
| Awards |
 full list |
George Balanchine (born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze; January 22 [O.S. January 9] 1904 – April 30, 1983) was a choreographer. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years.
Balanchine took the standards and technique from his time at the Imperial Ballet School and fused it with other schools of movement that he had adopted during his tenure on Broadway and in Hollywood, creating his signature "neoclassical style". He was a choreographer known for his musicality; he expressed music with dance and worked extensively with leading composers of his time like Igor Stravinsky. Balanchine was invited to America in 1933 by a young arts patron named Lincoln Kirstein, and together they founded the School of American Ballet. Along with Kirstein, Balanchine also co-founded the New York City Ballet (NYCB).
Balanchine was born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze (Georgian: გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე) in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, in the family of noted Georgian opera singer and composer Meliton Balanchivadze, who was one of the founders of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre and later served as the culture minister of Democratic Republic of Georgia, which became independent in 1918, but was later subsumed into the Soviet Union. The rest of Balanchine's Georgian side of the family comprised largely artists and soldiers. Little is known of Balanchine's Russian, maternal side. His mother, Meliton's second wife, Maria Nikolayevna Vasilyeva, was fond of ballet and viewed it as a form of social advancement from her lower reaches of the St. Petersburg society. 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.
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