How Did George Balanchine Contribute To Dance

George Balanchine was a notable dancer and choreographer. Through his hard work and dedication, he helped form the foundation of American ballet as well as the neoclassical style of ballet, which is commonly utilized in today’s choreography. Balanchine dedicated his life to the world of music and dance which lead him to make many contributions that affected the future of ballet. George Balanchine was born in 1904 in Russia. His parents were fond of the arts, particularly music and ballet. Unsurprisingly, Balanchine became very invested in these art forms from a young age. He made his dancing debut when he was ten years old in The Sleeping Beauty with the Maryinsky Theatre Ballet Company. Also, he started studying piano at the age of five.

Balanchine spent the next few years helping with many companies throughout Europe. After some time, Balanchine and a fellow dancer, Boris Kochno, formed their own company, Les Ballets 1933. Around the same time, an American dancer, Lincoln Kirstein, contacted Balanchine with the hopes of starting a ballet school in America that would be as good, if not better, than the European companies. Balanchine agreed to this proposal and departed to America where they created the School of American Ballet in New York and subsequently formed a company group, entitled “American Ballet”. In 1935, the company became partnered with the Metropolitan Opera (the Met) and Balanchine was asked to become their ballet master. Over the next several years, Balanchine spent time teaching, choreographing, and directing. His teaching style involved him teaching the dancers to develop a strong technique and style that would correspond to his choreography. Balanchine and Kirstein reunited to found the Ballet Society in 1946. Two years later (1948), after much recognition and impressed audiences, it became known as the “New York City Ballet”, which is currently a very famous and prestigious company. From this time until Balanchine’s death, he served as the artistic director of the New York City Ballet and choreographed the majority of the company’s performances. Balanchine often took classic ballets (like The Nutcracker) and molded it into his own version by renovating the choreography. His version of The Nutcracker is still performed every winter season at the New York City Ballet. In 1983, at the age of seventy nine, George Balanchine died from a degenerative neurological disease ("George