George Balanchine: Ballet Pioneers And Icons

Ballet Pioneers and Icons George Balanchine was born in Russia to a promising future of Ballet. Balanchine’s father was a composer which led to Balanchine studying the piano. When he was ten years old, he began lessons at the Imperial Ballet School where he learned Russian styles of dance. He went to the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music to study piano and also to continue his study of ballet. Balanchine gathered a group of dancers to present his choreography until a manager of the Ballet Russes noticed Balanchine. The manager replaced his most famous choreographer with Balanchine and he officially became the main choreographer of the most famous ballet company. After the manager of the Ballets Russes died and the company broke up,
Apollon Musagéte was one of his most innovative pieces. He collaborate with Stravinsky to combine ballet, Greek myths, and jazz movements. He himself said it was “the turning point in my life.” After this, Balanchine received a serious knee injury which ended his life performing, though this didn’t end his ballet career. He began to choreograph ballets which led to many beautiful performances performed by his dancers. Numerous years later, he made the ballet Orpheus, once again after collaborating with Stravinsky and a sculptor Isamu Noguichi. Though it’s only thirty minutes long, it led to an invitation of becoming a resident dance company, where Balanchine was the ballet master. A few years later, Balanchine created his version of The Nutcrackers where he played the role of Drosselmeyer. Balanchine added a few extra pieces of music, and it became a hit in New York City. Ever since then, it has been performed in New York City every year. I chose to write my essay on Balanchine because out of all the names on the list, I recognized his. After a quick google search, I was already intrigued about who Balanchine was when he was labeled as one of the greatest people in ballet. As I quickly looked through the first web page, I noticed more names I recognized, and upon further investigation, saw that he worked with Stravinsky, Picasso, and Matisse, all famous people. I was fascinated
I’m not exactly a “gym person” and I’ve been taking dance since I was two years old. Upon the first class, I knew this wasn’t going to be “an easy A” and I was happy about that. In the past, I only have taken a few classes of ballet, so I was shocked at how hard it was. Even so, Ms. Marciano explained how to execute each step to perfection. I’ll admit-I was really upset when I discovered I would miss a dance class per cycle due to Eden. I didn’t know I would miss so many classes when I signed up for Eden, and I likely wouldn’t have signed up if I knew about all the classes I would be missing. Even so, every week in ballet I was able to ask questions if need be. I think the course content is fair. I’m very happy I have a background in dance; if I didn’t have this background in ballet, I fear it would be much harder for me to perform each dance step. I think ballet in general definitely difficult. As someone who’s taken tap and jazz their whole life, ballet is a huge adjustment. There are so many specific rules I’ve never considered before. By the end of the year, I’m hoping to have a greater understanding and appreciation for dance, along with a nice workout every