Who was Balanchine?
George Balanchine (1904-1983), born Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivadze, was trained at the Imperial school in St Petersburg. He left the Soviet Union in 1920 and joined Diaghilev’s company in Monte Carlo. (It was Diaghilev who had him change his name, on the grounds that Balanchivadze would be too much for French audiences.) In 1932, he came to the United States at the suggestion, and with the assistance, of Lincoln Kirstein. His first act in the United States was to found the School of American Ballet. In the 1930s he made a name for himself choreographing for musical comedies. In 1947, he and Kirstein set up Ballet Society; the following year this became the New York City Ballet. He was ballet master at NYCB until his death. (The ballet world owes an immense debt to the vision of Morton Baum of the City Center, who was instrumental in establishing the New York City Ballet. He dropped in one evening to see what Ballet Society, who had rented the City Center, was up to, saw the Stravins
