Mikhail Baryshnikov's Famous Dancer

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.

“Dance, when you 're broken open. Dance, if you 've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you 're perfectly free.” Famous philosopher Rumi made an excellent point especially when concerning the lives of Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. They both danced through war, they danced through heart ache, and they danced through tears. Even though Nureyev, born March 17, 1938, lived through an earlier period of time than Baryshnikov, born January 7, 1948, the Soviet Union remained virtually unchanged. Both dancers had defected thereby leaving the only life they knew in order to gain creativity instead of being controlled like puppets by the KBG. Despite the

Which choreographer created several famous full length ballets, including Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker?

As world has changed over the last century or so, the ballet world has been changing with it. There are many people who have helped shape that change. The changes in style were mainly influenced by George Balanchine. George Balanchine, a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer, also known as the father of American ballet, was the man who was said to have changed the style of ballet forever. Along with these changes in style came changes in visual design elements, inspirational figures, and changes in what the ballets themselves tend to rely on. Many of the features given to ballet in Russia in the 15th and 16th century still remain to this day, but many features have been altered to fit . Let’s take a closer look at what features truly

Stanislavski was born in 1863 to a wealthy family who loved amateur theatricals. In 1898 he met Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and they founded the Moscow Art Theatre. Stanislavski's work is centred on the notion that acting should be a total lifelike expression of what is being

In 1924, with Vladimir Dimitriev's help, Balanchine, Tamara Geva, Nicholas Efimov, and Alexandra Danilova formed the Soviet State Dancers, and were allowed to tour Germany during the Maryinsky vacation. They decided not to return to Russia, but to defect and go to England. The small company did so poorly in London that they were bought out of their contracts. They then went to Paris in hopes of finding work. Serge Diaghilev heard of this Russian company and sent for them. He hired the four dancers, and also allowed Dimitriev to work for the company. Diaghilev thought the Georgian's name Balanchivadze was too difficult to pronounce and changed it to Balanchine. Diaghilev was immediately impressed with Balanchine's creative ballets and wanted him to choreograph for the opera in Monte Carlo. For the Ballets Russes he created Apollo in 1928 and The Prodigal Son in 1929, which have remained Blanchine's signature pieces to this day. In 1926 Geva divorced him and went to America, and Alexandra Danilova became his "unofficial" wife.

His company, the New York City Ballet, is the leading dance group of the United States and one of the great companies of the world. An essential part of the success of Balanchine has been the training of dancers, which he has supervised since the founding of his School of American Ballet in 1934. Balanchine chose to shape talent locally, and he has said that the basic structure of the American dancer was responsible for inspiring some of the striking lines of his compositions. Balanchine is not only gifted in creating entirely new productions, his choreography for classical works has been equally fresh and inventive. He has made American dance the most advanced and richest in choreographic development in the world today.

Although a legend in the United States, George Balanchine did not begin life here until age twenty-nine. He was born in Russia on January 22 of 1904¹. Balanchine’s father was a composer¹, so music was no mystery to him growing up. In fact, he began his music career at the age of five when he began to play the piano.³ Not long after, George started his studies of dance at the age of nine¹. He made his dancing debut at the age of ten in the Maryinsky Theatre Ballet company production of The Sleeping Beauty with the role of a cupid. ³He would also dance the role of the Prince in The Nutcracker at the age of fifteen. ⁵Balanchine graduated from the Maryinsky Theatre Ballet School in 1921¹.

Without George Balanchine the dance world might not be what it is today. He combined the technique of classical ballet and his modern movements to shape and mold the many styles of dance. He is remembered as the foremost contemporary choreographer in the world. George Balanchine choreographed over four hundred ballets. George Balanchine, a revolutionary ballet choreographer, began his career in Russia, continued in the United States, and left a memorable legacy worldwide.

In addition to developing his kinesthetic proficiency, he had retained his musical gift and Vera Kostrovitskaya, a fellow student, said that "He could never pass with indifference any musical instrument. The minute he came down to our floor of the school the sounds of a piano would be heard...Sometimes, in the evening, we would secretly climb the stairs to listen to Balanchivadze playing Liszt, Chopin or Beethoven in the boy's quarters..." In 1919 Balanchivadze applied to the Conservatory of Music and was accepted, but as an undernourished dancer (this was during the Bolshevik revolution and everyone was hungry, especially those involved in the arts, which were considered to be counter-revolutionary) he could not work simultaneously at the school and the conservatory, and never completed his music course. There can be little doubt that his concentration on both dance and music was the foundation of his later excellence in choreography.

have you ever wondered about ballet? me neither! but deal with it! ballet was a very popular dance in the early 1900s. people liked ballet for what it did in movies and how it was entertaining.

He later explained his departure from his native country to the New Statesman, saying, "I am individualist and there it is a crime." He consequently joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Within two years of living in Canada, he got the opportunity to work with several creative choreographers and explored the combination of traditional and contemporary technique. During this period he worked as a freelance artist with popular choreographers and companies like Alvin Ailey, Glen Tetley, Twyla Tharp and Jerome Robbins. Between 1974 and 1978, he was associated with the American Ballet Theatre as principal dancer partnering with ballerina Gelsey Kirkland. During this period he improvised and choreographed Russian classics like The Nutcracker in 1976 and Don Quixote in 1978. He made his debut performance in television in 1976 in In Performance Live with Wolf Trap. The following year, television network CBS bought his very popular ballet theatre performance of The Nutcracker for

While watching the video “Ballet, Sweat, and Tears,” I noticed that the Ballet teachers in Russia are more strict and severe than the ones in America. The teachers at the Russia academy yelled a lot and physically touched the students, while here I America that is not allowed. In my opinion a difference that I saw was that the students over at the Vaganova Ballet were not lazy at all. The students from the Russian academy were more focused and traditional. Russian ballet also focuses on moving the body as a “whole,” their moves are more controlled and precise. They also tend to focus on flexibility and endurance as well as the positions of the arms. I also noticed that the students attending the Vaganova academy were more willing to make sacrifices. And example, would be the little girl that stated that she has not been able to watch television for over two months now. Now, the typical student here in the United States tends to be lazy and usually has a careless attitude. I know the students over here in America would not wake up at six in the morning just to keep practicing, especially in today’s generation. While, I also watched some ballet videos from the school of American Ballet I saw that the diet is not as firm as the one from the Vaganova Ballet Academy. Many people have also stated that compared to the Vaganova Ballet Academy the school of American ballet is a breeze. A major difference that I saw was the performance while the Russian ballet performance was precise

Have you ever wondered why dance is filled with spectacular entertainment with a dancer like Rudolf Nureyev?I believe that Rudolf Nureyev is the best dancer with spectacular entertainment. To start off, it's because he was successful throughout his dance career because he has learned so much with his past of dance by dance teachers and dancing with other dance partners with being able to learn his passion and share it and for the audience to feel his passion of movement when he does perform on stage or not on the stage. In Addition, he is a spectacular entertainment because he makes everything look so easy and that everybody can try as hard as him. According to, “The New York Times” it shows and tells how and which dance partners he has had and adjusted to someone he doesn’t really know but that helped him to be able to entertain the audience as well by having a good dancer like him be on the stage and share their connection with dance/each other. In this , Nothing could really get in his way of his showing people what it is like being able to make people happy with dance. Similar to, how he is dancing actually got him to perform in different areas and get important roles for sleeping beauty and other shows he was called in for or interested in.

Instead, he created something, which possibly is greater than the Ballet Russe was, the New York City Ballet and the America School of Ballet. At the time we covered this information I did not see a possible connection that had with my life. It was just a simply fact of life, he left the Ballet Russe and created his own world renowned ballet company, but looking back in a way all of the students in this class along with thousands of others are Balanchine in a way. After all, we all left what we were accustomed to, our homes, families, friends, and high school. To come to a university. No one know what the outcome will be, but if we all have the vision and innovation that Balanchine had there is not a doubt in my mind that we too, all the freshman on campus, will be able to achieve success. Of course, our form of success will probably fade with the years, unlike Balanchine’s, but we can all enjoy the accomplishment like Balanchine had to feel with the New York City Ballet. Like mentioned earlier, Balanchine’s name will forever be tied to ballet, even the contemporary styles that we studied later in the semester.