George Balanchine Accomplishments

Throughout history individuals have had desire to explore the unknown. George Balanchine, world famous choreographer and director, by all means was an individual who desired to explore the world of ballet. One of Balanchine's greatest accomplishments was creating the world renowned School of American Ballet. However, to accomplish the task of creating a classical ballet school in America, not only lead to exploration of ballet, but also collaboration with other individuals in and associated with the dance world.

George Balanchine was born on January 22, 1908, is St. Peters-burg Russia. As a child he attended The Imperial School of Ballet, at the Marinsky theater. By 1933 Balanchine had a reputation of being a talented choreographer; adding

to the repituar of companies such as the Royal Ballet. On the other side of the world in Boston Massachusetts, college graduate Lincoln Kirsteen had a dream of creating a classical ballet company in America. Hearing about George Balanchine's rise to fame, Kirsteen eagerly traveled to Europe and proposed that Balanchine should come to the United States to help create an all American classical ballet company. In return Balanchine said, “but first a school”. Balanchine meant that in order to have true classical ballet in the United States, Lincoln Kirsteen would have to help him create a school that could provide well trained dancers for the company. On these conditions Balanchine traveled to the states for the first time in his life to reinvent ballet in the US.
On January 1, 1934, Balanchine and Kirsteens School of American Ballet, opened its doors for the first time.

On the first day of classes there was a total of 25 students (only three of which where male) and none had experianced the classical training that balanchine grew up with in russia. Part of the reason there where such few students was that the united states was still going through a time of great depression. The arts in general where hard to afford, and dance was primarily used to represent the social struggle of the people. Classical ballet, being posh and very structured did not well represent the feelings of the average American citizen. However, the few students attending the school where shocked about balanchines training; how innovative it was compared to their old technique. One student, Lisa Chalmers, recalls, “at the school of amerian ballet I had a feeling of importance that I ahd never felt before. Balanchine took ballet from being an old artform into a modern one that didnt need story to be entertaining”. Also Ruthanna Boris, one of the first 25 students to attend, claims balanchine was the first teacher she ever had to lead by example, and use physical contact to help improve form. Balanchine explored different styles with his students and pushed their capabilities to the limit, ultimately creating ballet dancers that the public enjoyed. These dancers where neoclassical, or ballet dancers with western influences incorporated into their classical

training.
Throughout Balanchines career of developing the School of American Ballet he had several opportunities to exchange ideas with other artists and philanthropists.

In 1964 the school had an encounter with the ford foundation in which ford donated 8,000,000 to SAB and affiliated company New York City Ballet to help strengthen Balanchine ballet. Balanchine also collaborated with composers such as Stravinsky to make neoclassical ballets for NYCB. To Balanchine the music was the most important aspect of ballet, "I am just a simple choreographer that learned how to read music. For me this is very important, because music is the basis, or the floor, that we walk on. And the best musicians, the best composers for dance -- who created the music, who invented what you call 'ballet' now -- were Tchaikovsky, Delibes, and Stravinsky”. However what was most important to Balanchine's success was meeting Lincoln Kirsteen. The couple where a dynamic duo, Balanchine handling the artistic side of the school, while kirsteen handled finances. Without Kirsteen there is probability that Balanchine would not have ever come to the US. However with out Balanchine classical ballet training would not have become popular in

America.
Balanchine was an explorer of using music and dance to create a new style of classical ballet. He started the first classical ballet school in america and not only the perception of the public but the ideas of his students. Without his talents and efforts School of American Ballet would not exist as one of the best classical ballet schools in America.