Posted
on January 22, 2014
George
Balanchine is sometimes called the Father of American Ballet. One of
the world's most famous choreographers (someone who plans and
arranges dance movements), he co-founded the New York City Ballet and
was its balletmaster for more than 35 years!
He
was not, however, from NYC or even America. Balanchine was born in
Saint Petersburg, in the Russian Empire, on this date in 1904. And
his name when he was born was Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze.
His
father's family were from Georgia (but not the peachy American state
Georgia; rather the Eastern European country Georgia), and they
included artists, soldiers, and an opera singer/composer who had
helped to create the Tbilisi Ballet Theatre. His mother was Russian
and was very fond of the ballet. She was not from high society like
her husband, and she thought of ballet as a way to be more cultured
and highbrow. She insisted that her 9-year-old son Giorgi audition
with his sister for ballet, even though he wasn't all that interested
in ballet.
Based
on that audition, Balanchine was put into the Imperial Ballet School!
When
the Bolsheviks revolted against the Russian czar and took over the
government, they closed down the Imperial Ballet School. Balanchine
played piano for food, in order to survive. Eventually the school was
reopened, Balanchine graduated, and he began to work as a dancer. He
also enrolled in a conservatory where he studied music.
George
Balanchine got married very young—just 19 years old!—to an
even-younger woman, who was just 16 years old. She was also a dancer.
(Eventually Balanchine married and divorced five times—always to
one of his dancers!) The two took advantage of being outside of the
restrictive Soviet Union, on a dance tour with the Soviet State
Dancers, to flee to Paris and freedom.
Balanchine
had done some choreography even at a young age, so when he had to
reduce his dancing because of a knee injury, he turned to
choreography in Paris and Monte Carlo. Then he was persuaded by a
patron of the arts named Lincoln Kirstein to relocate to America to
start a ballet company.
And
that's how a Georgian-Russian boy became the Father of American
Ballet!
I
LOVE Balanchine's Nutcracker!
Balanchine's
production of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is
one of the most famous versions of a famous ballet. Watch this short video on how kids train to be a part of that show!
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead!
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
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here are my boards for:
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