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George Balanchine Essay

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George Balanchine

Ballet is one of the world's oldest and newest forms of dance. One man that created new audiences for ballet and mastered the dance to its fullest was none other than George Balanchine. He brought the standard ballet to levels no one has ever seen before. In the world of dance, there have been many wonderful and talented choreographers but Balanchine's work affected the dance world so much that he was a legend long before his death. Not only was he legendary worldwide but also his influenced American Ballet. George Balanchine's unique style of dance created the "American style" of Ballet.
Georgi Melitonovich Balnchivadze, George Balanchine, was born on January 22, 1904 in St. Petersburg. He was born into a highly …show more content…

About three years later, Balanchine formed a group of four dancers, "Soviet State Dancers," that toured outside of the Soviet Union. His choreography for his dancers upset the traditional minded audiences during his tour, so his tour was not of the greatest success. On the tour, he met a man named Diaghilev, who immediately offered him a job that gave him a great deal of exposure. After three years of amazing experience, Diaghilev promoted Balanchine as a choreographer and made him master for his company. Balanchine was only at the age of 25. His unique style of dance was too advanced for the Soviets to handle. So Balanchine moved to Europe to start his own ballet company. He was not there long, Lincoln Kirstein, one of his fans who encouraged Balanchine to go to the United States to help establish a school of Ballet equivalent to those found in Europe and Russia. Little did Lincoln know that those words of wisdom were the start to a whole in Ballet world in the U.S.
When Balanchine first arrived in the U.S. in 1932, he made a name for himself by choreographing for musical comedies. Just a few years later in 1934 Balanchine helped found the School of American Ballet. It opened on January 1, 1934, with a class size of 25. Balanchine's training was very technical yet traditional. He wanted his students to perform at his level. This school was the start to Balanchine's American success.

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