Balanchine

(Robert) Masseo Davis
Balanchine

It’s interesting that many of the great people who set the standards of their fields seem to stumble onto their paths of fate. George Balanchine is no exception to this ironic truth. In the ballet world of the 20th century Balanchine is regarded as one the fathers of this seamlessly upheld tradition.

“The mark of greatness is when everything
before you is obsolete, and everything after
you bares your mark.”
- Dave Chappelle
- “Inside the Actors Studio”

It’s not to say that dance, or even ballet in the modern world is mere imitations, quite the contrary, however there is something to be said about the standards that were both required and upheld today.
It has been said in regards to the four leading men in American Ballet Theater, Jose Manuel Carreno, Angle Corella, Vladimir Malakov, and Ethan Stiefel in the dance documentary “Born to Be Wild: The leading men of American Ballet Theater” that,

“They set the standard for dance, now.”
-Kevin McKenzie,
“American Ballet Theater Artistic Director”

Those standards that Kevin McKenzie, spoke of, were the groundwork, required, as well as demanded by George Balanchine, of his dancers. George Balanchine is responsible for arranging what the western world recognizes as traditional ballet.
In regards to the American audience George Balanchine is arguably the countries primary influence, and contribution to the vast history, and lineage, which is ballet.
Sure we didn’t train him as a dancer; there were no notable American ballet schools until he came. And Balanchine is not of American decent, however his legacy is now, and forever will be apart of the American ballet tradition.
In regards to George Balanchine the man, not the choreographer, he was always referred to as a levelheaded man, humble, happy, and easy going. Balanchine, however was not afraid of work he welcomed it, Balanchine would say, “First comes sweat…then comes beauty if you’re vairy lucky and have said you’re prayers”.
George Balanchine was a simple man who at the end of the day did nothing more than express a profound love for the dance. His legacy was not one of legend until after his time, just as the “Golden Ages” in history were not referred to as the “Golden Ages” until much later.
In regards to the evolution of the modern ballet tradition, George Balanchine’s, contribution, his work and his legacy are equivalent to man standing upright the
homo-sapien. Balanchine is the pinnacle of what we recognized as the traditional ballet movement.
In St. Petersburg Russia, on January 22, 1904 Georgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze was born. It wasn’t until approximately twenty years later that Georgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze changed his name to George Balanchine, when he joined the Ballet Russes in Paris. Serge Diagilev, merely found “Balanchivadze“ to be a name far too difficult to pronounce. Balanchine’s father was Meliton Balanchivadze and his mother was Maria Nikolayevna. Balanchine’s parents had three children together; George was their second child. Tamara Balanchivadze was George’s older sister, and Andrei was his younger brother.
As a choreographer Balanchine has been noted and recognized as being very musical mover and creator. Balanchine’s father was a well-respected musical composer who raised his children with a modest fortune and respectable reputation. This would lead most to believe that with a musician as a father that he would play the role in leading his children into a musically involved lifestyle; quite the contrary it was Balanchine’s mother, Maria who got their children involved with music at a young age.

“It’s like watching light pass through a prism.
The music passes through him, and in the same natural
yet marvelous way that a prism refracts light, he
refracts music into dance.”
-Martha Graham
(Balanchine, A biography by Bernard Taper)

“Balanchine composed the choreography as he
listened to my recording, and I could actually
observe him conceiving gestures, movement,
combinations and compositions. The result was
a series of dialogues perfectly complementary to
and coordinated with the dialogues of the music.”
-Igor Stravinsky
(The George Balanchine Foundation)

Balanchine’s, mother started teaching him how to play the piano when he was 5 years old. His lessons later were given to him by, “an imposing, bespectacled German lady…”
In the beginning George didn’t enjoy playing the piano or even music for that matter, because like most young boys Balanchine found practicing to be tedious and boring. It wasn’t until one faithful day when he was working on a section from a Beethoven Sonata. He found the music so beautiful that it brought him to tears as he practiced. This new found love and appreciation for music would prove to be very beneficial for his future, and in a sense beneficial for the entire ballet world.
When Balanchine was 10 years of age he was to become a naval officer his mother was going to enroll him in the Imperial Naval Academy, and his sister, Tamara was returning to The Imperial School of Theater and Ballet, for her second attempt at being admitted to the school. Coincidentally the naval academy that year was overloaded with applications and there was no room for young George to enroll in the academy. As a result of the navel academy’s tremendous overflow, he wound up applying with his sister at the Imperial School of Theater and Ballet, ironically he was admitted and she again was not. The tedious amount of classes he took at the school bored him just as his early stages of piano lessons. Eventually, George Balanchine had his first taste of the stage. It was costmary that students from there second year on at the school were to be used in small parts and performed with the company on the legendary Maryinsky Theater. George Balanchine appeared as a cupid in the last act in the company’s performance of “The Sleeping Beauty”. This performance was an experience that changed his perspective, similar to his experience with the Beethoven Sonata. All the work he had been involved with at the school had a purpose, with the beautiful sets, décor, and costumes Balanchine found a new respect for the medium of dance.
Over the course of his following years at the ballet school Balanchine appeared in several other ballets amongst which include the “The Pharaoh’s Daughter, Paquita, La Jota Aragonese, The Nutcracker” and many others.
In 1924, George Balanchine, Tamara Geva, Alexandra Danilova, and Nicholas Efimov were allowed leave from the newly formed Soviet Union to tour Europe. All four of the dancers were invited to join Serge Diaghilev Ballet Russes, and never returned to Russia as students of the Imperial Ballet School.
Balanchine quickly worked his way up to being the company’s ballet master, and principle choreographer, with the Ballet Russe Balanchine created such works as “L’Efant et les Sortileges, Romeo and Juliet, the Prodigal Son etc”.
After Diaghilev’s death Balanchine formed Les Ballet, a small group who’s solo season was short lived however, the touring of this company can be blamed for introducing Balanchine to a man who will with Balanchine’s help bring ballet to America.

“It was during its London
engagement, however,a meeting occurred
that would change the history of the
20th-centurey dance.”
-(Pg1, The George Balanchine Foundation)

During Les Ballet’s, London tour George Balanchine met Lincoln Kirstein, and he convinced Balanchine to help him bring ballet to America. Kirsten had always wanted to see an American ballet company not dependent on European ideals or standards of repertory. Balanchine agreed to take part in this project, however his request was to first build a school. Balanchine came to the big apple in October 1933, and under one year later the School of American Ballet was founded in January of 1934.
Balanchine choreographed Serenade, on the students of the ballet school, and it was his first of many works in America.
The students and the school however did not have a permanent residency until years later. A year after the schools opening Balanchine had succeeded in establishing a professional company. They had their premiere performance at the Adelphi Theater, in March of 1935. The company later became the resident ballet company of The Metropolitan Opera. This merger was brief for the Opera was not interested in showcasing ballet and Balanchine’s company was only allowed two all dance programs per season.
By 1946, after an exclusive performance of Balanchine’s new works on the company, which included The Four Temperaments, and Orpheus, George and Kirstein and the company were invited to join the New York City Center of Music and Drama. The rest is history, the birth of the New York City Ballet had arrived and Balanchine and Kirstein’s dream had been realized.
In conjuncture to the School of American Ballet, and the New York City Ballet, the company, Balanchine remained the Artistic Director and the company’s choreographer creating a plethora of original works until his death, on April 30th 1983. George Balanchine died at the age of 79. (The Balanchine Foundation/ Taper)

“Mr. B. is with Mozart and Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky.’
But we have not lost Balanchine- not the essential Balanchine,
who lives in the great catalogue of masterpieces that have so
shaped and refined our understanding of ballet and given it-
and us- thrilling life. And we are not without the other essential
fact of his work: his school and training system that has tuned
American bodies as the ideal classical medium for his ideal classic
vision. We can never be without Balanchine. He is so central to the
“dannse d’ecole in our century, so surely its guiding force, that grief
becomes mere self- indulgence. Gratitude and joy must be our feeling
for what he gave us, and determination that his work and ideals be
honored and preserved and used to illuminate the future of ballet.”
-Lincoln Kirstein

It could be said that George Balanchine, was highly influenced during his four years with Diaghilev and the Ballet Russe. There is something to be said on Balanchine’s pedagogy method in relation to his experiences in Paris with Diaghilev.
The relationship between Balanchine and Diaghilev was different than that of any of the previous choreographers of the Ballet Russe; he was the first one to in a sense trust in his own work without the felt need for approval from Diaghilev. All the other choreographers would go before Diaghilev with their work before show time, because the Ballet Russe as a project ultimately was Diaghilev’s baby, just as The school of American Ballet, and the New York City Ballet would become Balanchine’s.
Since Fokine, Balanchine was the only choreographer of the Ballet Russe to not be bread into the choreographers seat by Diaghilev, as was Nijinsky, Massine and Najinska.
However, while Balanchine was a unique character in that sense, not being trained to choreograph by Diaghilev Balanchine did receive a different kind of education, which is reflected in the way New York City Ballet is organized and upheld.
While Balanchine was with Diaghilev, Diaghilev would bring him everywhere imposing other art forms on him such as paintings. These were the artists that where creating the décor and set designs that the Ballet Russe was so famous for having. Balanchine in turn noticed something about the company that the public had yet to realize.
Though the Ballet Russe offered a visual spectacle, in terms of décor and set, the dancers weren’t that talented.

“One of the variations in “Apollo” was not to Diaghilev’s
taste. He thought it was to long, too repetitious…He told
George that the variation was no good, and that he didn’t
like the music. George said, “It is your dancer that isn’t
good.” (It was [Alice] Nikitina.) George wouldn’t change
the variation, so Diaghilev took it out. One day, in Covent
Garden, just before the performance of “Apollo”, Diaghilev
rushed looking for George…”put the variation in quickly…
Stravinsky is in the audience.” So George had to grab the
lady who was dancing Tersichore and quickly rehearse her
just before she went on stage.”
(pg 197, Garafola and Baer)

Balanchine felt that dance execution was at the forefront of the work and it could be argued that that is way when Lincoln Kirstein convinced him to come to America Balanchine insisted on first having a school. The case being that if could not find talented dancers that could do his work; then he would raise them.
Another influence that Diaghilev left on Balanchine is the tradition of collaboration, with other artists. When Balanchine was partaking with the Ballet Russe Company he was in back stage area with acclaimed artists such as, Picasso, Rouauly, Utrillo, Miro, Gris, de Chirico, Braque, Derain, and Tchelitchev. At the time Balanchine didn’t realize the company he was with, but he later continued this tradition with a musical artist, Stravinsky.
The relation ship as a creative force of Balanchine and Stravinsky is comparable to Petipa and Tchaikovsky, or filmmakers and their leading actors, like Martin Scorssese, and Robert DeNiro. (Taper)
As a result of his experience with the Ballet Russe Balanchine was capable of being a founding member of Americas premiere ballet training method and school, as well as one of the best ballet schools in the country.
Ever since the New York City Ballet found it’s permanent home Balanchine lived out the rest of his days as the company’s ballet master, culminating with a total body of work consisting of 425 works. His final piece was Variations for Orchestra (1982), which was a solo for Suzanne Farrell. Other works that within his catalogue of master pieces are, Bourree Fantasque, The Firebird, Scotch Symphony, Western Symphony, Jewels, The Nutcracker, which was his first full length ballet for the company, and many more.
The members of his company held him in high esteem and their love for him play a part in helping keep his tradition alive today.

“I went to his aphartment in New York and we sat on
the couch and I didn’t say, “May I please come back?”
and he didn’t say, “Would you like to come back?” It
was “When do we get back to work?” I was committed
to Bejart until December, and Maurice said he was sorry
to lose me, but he knew how important Mr. B. was to me.
He knew this had to be. .. I knew I was going to go back where I belonged.”
-Suzanne Farrell

In conclusion, George Balanchine while he did change the face of ballet as it was known. The truth is as a humble man; he did not ever set out to do that. Balanchine didn’t set out to change the world, he didn’t intend on influencing the world, he didn’t expect to do anything more than just create good work. All Balanchine ever really did at the core of it all was express his unbridled love for the art medium, dance.

“We must first realize that dancing is an absolutely independent
art, not merely a secondary accompanying one. I believe that it
is one of the great arts… The important thing in ballet is the
movement itself. A ballet may contain a story, but the visual spectacle…
is the essential element. The choreographer and the dancer
must remember that they reah the audience through the eye.
It’s the illusion created which convinces the audience,
much as it is with the work of a magician.”
-George Balanchine