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Jorj BalanchinAmerican choreographer
Date of Birth: 22.01.1904
Country:  USA |
Content:
George Balanchine: A Biography
George Balanchine, an American choreographer, is celebrated in Russia on the occasion of his jubilee. The Mariinsky Theatre, which performed Balanchine's ballet "Jewels," and the Moscow gallery "Dom Nashchokina," which opened an exhibition by photographer Paul Kolnik, who captured Balanchine's performances at the New York City Ballet for 30 years, paid tribute to him.
A Prolific Legacy
Balanchine's immense body of work includes 425 ballets, a number that is difficult to comprehend. It surpasses even the 150 ballets of Roland Petit, who claims to be more prolific than Picasso. While the general public may only be familiar with a few of Balanchine's works, such as "Apollo," "The Glass Palace," and perhaps "Prodigal Son," dance experts know of several dozen. Even his native theater, New York City Ballet, which restored a hundred of his works in 2004, cannot showcase everything he composed in his jubilee year.
From Georgia to America
Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivadze, who adopted the name Balanchine thanks to Diaghilev, staged his first masterpieces for the famous impresario after leaving Russia in 1924 for a tour and never returning. Balanchine's prolific output was driven by divine will and the need to earn a living. During difficult times, he choreographed in Hollywood, created revues, and worked on various shows and musicals. He even choreographed for the circus, as recounted in Solomon Volkov's book "Passions for Tchaikovsky: Conversations with George Balanchine." Balanchine once commissioned a polka from Stravinsky, who inquired about the purpose. Balanchine responded, "For an elephant." When Stravinsky sought clarification, asking if it was for a young ballerina or an old one, Balanchine replied, "For a young ballerina elephant." Anecdotes about Balanchine abound, much like those about Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Brodsky, and Baryshnikov, indicating that the great American ballet master, who adapted Russian classics for a great and ballet-enthusiastic nation, remains in our consciousness as a Russian emigrant, our own, despite the American influences in his balletic language.
A Revered Figure
For a long time, this circumstance hindered the staging of his ballets in Soviet Russia. However, it also created a cult around Balanchine, the incomprehensible genius, whose dances are difficult to perform but necessary to master. To keep up and be part of the legacy that has been passed down not only to beloved ballerinas but to the entire world. The time for a sober assessment of Balanchine has not yet come. It will arrive when his ballets become part of the repertoire of at least ten Russian theaters, and the audience becomes familiar with five or six more titles. Then, perhaps, the sacred awe associated with the term "Balanchine's neoclassicism" will be replaced by a calm appreciation for the greatest craftsman of the 20th century, who transported the scent of courtly dances that adorned the courts of Louis XIV and Nicholas II into the era of interplanetary travel, as aptly expressed by Bejart.
If we look at the map of jubilee celebrations published by New York City Ballet, we can see that from December to February alone, over thirty theaters worldwide are performing Balanchine's ballets. This represents hundreds of titles. The Mariinsky Theatre, the most reverent of the Russian contenders for the ballet master's legacy, is also featured in the January calendar. On January 22nd, they will present "Jewels," a ballet in which Balanchine expresses gratitude to and celebrates the three schools, three countries that nurtured him: France ("Emeralds"), America ("Rubies"), and Russia ("Diamonds").
