George Balanchine biography personal life. Balanchine George - biography, facts from life, photos, reference information. Do you know that

Among the stories about Russian émigrés, Sergei Dovlatov also has an anecdote about how Balanchine did not want to write a will, and when he did write, he left his brother in Georgia a couple of golden hours, and gave all his ballets to eighteen beloved women. All ballets are 425 compositions.

Georgy Balanchivadze was born in St. Petersburg on January 22, 1904 in the family of the famous Georgian composer, founder of the Georgian opera and romance, Meliton Balanchivadze (1862-1937), who was then called the "Georgian Glinka". His brother, Andrei Balanchivadze, is also a talented composer.

In 1914 Georgy entered the Petrograd Theater School. He first appeared on stage in The Sleeping Beauty - played the role of a little cupid. Subsequently, he recalled the school:

« We had a real classic technique, clean. In Moscow, they didn’t teach that way ... They, in Moscow, more and more ran around the stage naked, like a kind of Candybober, showing muscles. There was more acrobatics in Moscow. This is not an imperial style at all.»

Then, at school, he got acquainted with the music of Tchaikovsky and fell in love with it for the rest of his life.He was a diligent student and, after graduating from school, was admitted to the troupe of the Petrograd State Opera and Ballet Theater (formerly the Mariinsky) in 1921. Becoming one of the organizers of the "Young Ballet" collective in the early 1920s, Balanchivadze staged his numbers there, which he performed together with other young artists. Life was not easy - they often went hungry.

In 1924, with the assistance of the singer V.P. Dmitriev's group of dancers received permission to go on a European tour. Balanchivadze firmly decided that he would not return back. There were four of them - Tamara Jiva, Alexandra Danilova, Georgy Balanchine and Nikolai Efimov, they really wanted to see the world, they drove all over Europe.

Diaghilev saw them in London.Georgy Balanchivadze was lucky: Diaghilev himself, a renowned avant-garde entrepreneur, drew attention to him. He became the next, after Bronislava Nijinska, the choreographer of the troupe of the Russian Ballet of Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev changed his name - this is how the ballet master Balanchine appeared.

He staged ten ballets for Diaghilev, including Apollo Musaget to music by Igor Stravinsky (1928), which, along with Prodigal Son to music by Sergei Prokofiev, is considered a masterpiece of neoclassical choreographyand today... The long-term creative cooperation between Balanchine and Stravinsky began, and Balanchine's creative credo was voiced: “See music, hear dance”.

During one of the performances, Balanchine injured his knee. This circumstance limited his abilities as a dancer, but gave him free time to practice choreography. He got a taste for teaching and realized that this was his real calling. Returning to Paris in 1933, he founded his own company. The artistic directors were Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weil. In collaboration with them, Balanchine created the ballet of the 20th century.

Once Balanchine found a diploma symphony of the young Georges Bizet in a Parisian library and in between times, filling in the forced idleness, stagedin 1935the unpretentious ballet Symphony C, which did not pretend to anything, which, as it turned out later, became one of his masterpieces. When Balanchine was invited to the Paris Opera in 1947, he chose this piece for his debut entitled The Crystal Palace. The success was tremendous. After that, in 1948, Balanchine moved the production to New York, and since then it has not left the stage of the New York City Ballet.

After Diaghilev's death in 1929, the Russian Ballet began to disintegrate, and Balanchine left him. He worked first in London, thenguest choreographerin Copenhagen. Returning for some time to the New Russian Ballet, which settled in Monte Carlo, he directed several numbers for Tamara Tumanova. SoonBalanchinegone, having decided to organize his own troupe - "Les Ballets 1933". During the several months of the troupe's existence, several successful performances were performed to the music of Darius Millau, Kurt Weil, Henri Sauguet. Seeing them, the famous American philanthropist Lincoln Kirstein suggested that Balanchine move to the United States to create the American Ballet School and the American Ballet troupe, and Balanchine agreed.

Boston multimillionaire Kirstein was obsessed with ballet. He had a dream - to create an American ballet school, and on its basis - an American ballet company. In the face of a young, seeking, talented, ambitious Balanchine, Kirstein found a man capable of making his dream come true.

In 1933, Balanchine moved to the United States. Here began the longest and most brilliant period of his activity. The choreographer started from scratch. George Balanchine's first project in the new location was the opening of a ballet school. With financial support from Kirstein and Edward Warberg, on January 2, 1934, the School of American Ballet admitted its first students. Balanchine's first ballet was Serenade to music by Tchaikovsky.

Then the professional American Ballet troupe was created. They danced first at the Metropolitan Opera - from 1935 to 1938, then toured as an independent group. In 1936, Balanchine staged Murder on Tenth Avenue. The first reviews were devastating. Balanchine remained unperturbed; he believed in the success that came after a decade of hard work: there was a constant rapture of the press, and a multimillion-dollar grant from the Ford Foundation, and a portrait of Balanchine on the cover of Time magazine. And the main thing is the overcrowded halls at the performances. George Balanchine became the recognized head of American ballet, a trendsetter of tastes, and one of the leaders of neoclassicism in art.

In 1940, Balanchine became a US citizen. In 1941, he created two of his most famous performances for the Latin American tour of the American Balle Caravan troupe - Balle Imperial to music by P.I. Tchaikovsky and "Baroque Concerto" to music by I.S. Bach. In 1944 and 1946 Balanchine collaborated with the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo.

George Balanchine and Arthur Mitchell

In 1946 Balanchine and Kirstein founded the Ballet Society. In 1948, Balanchine was invited to lead this troupe as part of the New York Center for Music and Drama. The Ballet Society became the New York City Ballet.

It would seem that Balanchine, brought up on the classical ballet repertoire, received a classical musical education, Tchaikovsky should be closer than, say, Paul Hindemith. However, the circle of his favorite composers was wide. It included Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Bach, Mozart and Gluck, Ravel and Bizet, Bernstein and Gold, Gershwin and Hindemith, the composer of The Four Temperaments for the opening of the Ballet Society.

Music meant more to Balanchine than a skeleton for choreography. The music gave impetus. Until he “saw” the music, he didn't start working. He did not recognize any pre-ordered plots: music was everything. Balanchine read the clavier from sight and immediately saw whether this was his music. George Balanchine's musical education allowed him to find contact with composers and make his own adjustments to the orchestration. The speed with which he staged his ballets largely depended on his ability to quickly read the clavier.

In the 1950s-1960s, a number of successful productionsBalanchine, including Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, is shown annually at Christmas.

As Maurice Béjart aptly put it, Balanchine "brought into the era of interplanetary travel the scent of courtly dances that adorned the courtyards of Louis XIV and Nicholas II with their garlands." He returned pure dance to the ballet stage, pushed into the background by narrative ballets.

Balanchine died in New York on April 30, 1983. Five months after his death, the George Balanchine Foundation was founded in New York. Leading American newspapers, rarely agreeing with each other, unanimously rank Balanchine among the three greatest creative geniuses of the twentieth century; the other two - Picasso and Stravinsky ...

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(divorce), Vera Zorina (divorce), Maria Tolchif (divorce), Tanakil LeClerk (divorce)

Biography

George Balanchine (born George Balanchine; at birth Georgy Melitonovich Balanchivadze, Georgian გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; 1904 -1983) is an outstanding choreographer of Russian-Georgian origin, who laid the foundation for American ballet and modern neoclassical ballet art in general.

early years

Giorgi Balanchivadze was born into the family of the Georgian composer Meliton Balanchivadze (1862-1937), one of the founders of modern Georgian musical culture. Georgy Balanchivadze's mother is Russian. The younger brother of George, Andria, also later became a famous composer. George's mother instilled in him a love for art, and in particular for ballet.

In 1913, Balanchivadze was enrolled in the ballet school at the Mariinsky Theater, where he studied with Pavel Gerdt and Samuil Andrianov. After the October Revolution, the school was disbanded, and he had to earn a living by tapping. Soon the school was reopened (its funding, however, was significantly reduced), and in 1921, after graduating from it, Balanchivadze entered the ballet class of the Petrograd Conservatory, where he also studied piano playing, music theory, counterpoint, harmony and composition, and was admitted to the corps de ballet of the State Opera and Ballet Theater.

In 1922, he married fifteen-year-old dancer Tamara Geverzheeva (Geva), daughter of the famous theatrical figure Levkiy Zheverzheev.
In 1923 he graduated from the conservatory.

Emigration. Paris

During a trip to Germany in 1924, Balanchivadze, along with several other Soviet dancers, decided to stay in Europe and soon ended up in Paris, where he received an invitation from Sergei Diaghilev to take the place of choreographer in the Russian Ballet. On the advice of Diaghilev, the dancer adapted his name to the Western style - George Balanchine.
Soon Balanchine became the ballet master of the Russian Ballet, and during 1924-1929 (until the death of Diaghilev) he staged nine major ballets and a number of small individual numbers. A serious knee injury prevented him from continuing his career as a dancer, and he completely switched to choreography.

After Diaghilev's death, the Russian ballet began to disintegrate, and Balanchine left him. He worked first in London, then in Copenhagen, where he was a guest choreographer. Returning for some time to the New Russian Ballet, which settled in Monte Carlo, and staging several numbers for Tamara Tumanova, Balanchine soon left him again, deciding to organize his own troupe - "Ballet 1933" (Les Ballets 1933). The troupe existed for only a few months, but during this time it held a festival with the same name in Paris and performed several successful productions to the music of Darius Millau, Kurt Weill (“The Seven Deadly Sins of a Bourgeois” to libretto by B. Brecht), Henri Sauguet.
After one of these performances, the famous American philanthropist Lincoln Kirstein suggested that Balanchine move to the United States and found a ballet troupe there. The choreographer agreed and moved to the United States in October 1933.

Balanchine's first project in a new location was the opening of a ballet school. With financial support from Kirstein and Edward Warberg, on January 2, 1934, the School of American Ballet welcomed its first students. A year later, Balanchine founds a professional troupe - American Ballet, which first performed at the Metropolitan Opera, then toured as an independent collective, and broke up in the mid-1940s.

Balanchine's new troupe, the Ballet Society, was re-established with the generous support of Kirstein. In 1948, Balanchine received an invitation to lead this troupe as part of the New York Center for Music and Drama. The Ballet Society becomes the New York City Ballet.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Balanchine staged a number of successful productions, including Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, which became a Christmas tradition in the United States.

Personal life

In 1921, Balanchine married 16-year-old ballerina Tamara Geverzheeva. However, after 5 years, he divorced her. Then he had a close relationship with ballerinas Alexandra Danilova (1926-1933) and then - Tamara Tumanova.

He also married and got divorced 3 times, always with ballerinas and dancers. His wives were: Vera Zorina (1938-1946), Maria Tolchif (1946-1952) and Tanakil LeKlerk (1952-1969). He did not have children in any of the marriages, and he did not have any from extramarital affairs, of which he also had many.

Demise

From the late 1970s, the choreographer began to show signs of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which was diagnosed only after his death. He began to lose balance while dancing, then progressively - sight and hearing. In 1982, he finally went to bed. In recent years, Balanchine also suffered from frequent angina, he underwent bypass surgery.
Balanchine died in 1983 and was buried in Oakland Cemetery in New York according to the Orthodox rite. One of his wives, Aleksandra Danilova, was subsequently buried there.

Balanchine's innovation

Balanchine's repertoire as a choreographer includes performances of various genres. He created a two-act ballet "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (music by F. Mendelssohn, 1962) and a three-act "Don Quixote" by N.D. Nabokov (1965), new versions of old ballets or individual ensembles of them: a one-act version of Swan Lake ( 1951) and The Nutcracker (1954) by Tchaikovsky, variations from Raymonda by AK Glazunov (1961), Coppelia by L. Delibes (1974). However, the greatest development in his work was given to plotless ballets, which used music that was often not intended for dance: suites, concerts, instrumental ensembles, less often symphonies. The content of the new type of ballet created by Balanchine is not a presentation of events, not the experiences of the characters and not a stage spectacle (the scenery and costumes play a role subordinate to the choreography), but a dance image stylistically corresponding to the music, growing out of the musical image and interacting with it. Invariably relying on the classical school, Balanchine discovered new possibilities contained in this system, developed and enriched it.

About 30 productions were performed by Balanchin to the music of Stravinsky, with whom he was in close friendship since the 1920s throughout his life (Orpheus, 1948; The Firebird, 1949; Agon, 1957; Capriccio, included under the name "Rubies" in the ballet "Jewels", 1967; "Concerto for Violin", 1972, etc.). He repeatedly turned to the works of Tchaikovsky, whose music was used for the ballets The Third Suite (1970), The Sixth Symphony (1981), etc. At the same time, he was close to the music of contemporary composers, for which he had to look for a new style of dance : "Four Temperaments" (music by P. Hindemith, 1946), "Ayvesiana" (music by C. Ives, 1954), "Episodes" (music by A. Webern, 1959).

Balanchine retained the form of a plotless ballet built on classical dance even when he was looking for national or everyday character in the ballet, creating, for example, the image of cowboys in the Symphony of the Far West (music by H. Kay, 1954) or a large American city in the ballet. Who cares?" (music by J. Gershwin, 1970). Here classical dance appeared to be enriched by everyday, jazz, sports vocabulary and rhythmic patterns.

Along with ballets, Balanchine staged many dances in musicals and films, especially in the 1930s-1950s (the musical Na Pointe !, 1936, etc.), opera performances: Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky and Ruslan and Lyudmila M . I. Glinka, 1962 and 1969).
Balanchine ballets are performed in all countries of the world. He had a decisive influence on the development of choreography in the 20th century, not breaking with traditions, but boldly renewing them. The impact of his work on Russian ballet intensified after his troupe's tours to the USSR in 1962 and 1972.

Do you know that

Balanchine liked to wash himself (a small washing machine was installed in the apartment) and iron his shirts. By his own admission, most of the work he did exactly at the time when he stroked.

In 1988, Balanchine was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Balanchine believed that the plot is not at all important in ballet, the main thing is only the music and the movement itself: “We need to discard the plot, do without decorations and magnificent costumes. The dancer's body is his main instrument, it must be visible. Instead of scenery - a change of light ... That is, the dance expresses everything with the help of only music "

Director

Filmography

Works in the theater

Ballets staged by Balanchin as a choreographer (incomplete list):

Ballets staged for the New York Ballet:

1982 Elegy / Élégie
1981 Mozartiana (P. Tchaikovsky) / Mozartiana
1981 Hungarian Gypsy Airs
1981 Garland Dance from The Sleeping Beauty (P. Tchaikovsky)
1980 Walpurgisnacht Ballet
1980 Dancing Davidsbündler (R. Schumann) / Robert Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze
1980 Ballade
1979 Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
1978 Kammermusik No. 2
1978 Ballo della Regina
1977 Vienna Waltzes
1977 Etude for Piano
1976 Union Jack
1976 Chaconne
1975 Gypsies (Ravel) / Tzigane
1975 The Steadfast Tin Soldier
1975 Sonatine (Ravel)
1975 Pavane (Ravel)
1975 Le tombeau de Couperin (Ravel)
1974 Variations Pour une Porte et un Soupir
1974 Coppélia
1973 Cortège Hongrois
1972 Symphony in Three Movements (I. Stravinsky)
1972 Stravinsky Violin Concerto (I. Stravinsky)
1972 Scherzo à la Russe (I. Stravinsky)
1972 Pulcinella (I. Stravinsky) / Pulcinella
1972 Duo Concertant (I. Stravinsky)
1972 Divertimento from “Le Baiser De La Fée” (I. Stravinsky)
1970 Who cares? (J. Gershwin) / Who Cares?
1970 Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3
1968 Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
1968 La Source
1967 Valse-Fantaisie
1967 Jewels: Rubies, Emeralds, Diamonds
1967 Divertimento Brillante
1966 Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet
1965 Harlequinade
1965 Don Quixote
1964 Tarantella
1964 Clarinade
1963 Movements for Piano and Orchestra
1963 Bugaku 1963 Meditation
1962 A Midsummer Night "s Dream
1961 Raymonda Variations
1960 Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
1960 Monumentum pro Gesualdo
1960 Liebeslieder Walzer
1960 Donizetti Variations
1959 Episodes
1958 Stars and Stripes
1958 Gounod Symphony
1957 Square Dance
1957 Agon
1956 Divertimento No. 15
1956 Allegro Brillante
1955 Pas de Trois (Glinka)
1955 Pas de Dix
1954 Symphony of the Far West (H. Kay) / Western Symphony
1954 The Nutcracker (P. Tchaikovsky)
1954 Ivesiana
1952 Scotch Symphony
1952 Metamorphoses
1952 Harlequinade Pas de Deux
1952 Concertino
1951 Swan Lake (P. Tchaikovsky) / Swan Lake act II
1951 La Valse
1951 A La Françaix
1950 Sylvia Pas de Deux
1949 The Firebird (I. Stravinsky) / The Firebird
1949 Bourrée fantasque
1948 Pas de Trois (Minkus)
1948 Orpheus
1947 Theme and Variations (P. Tchaikovsky)
1947 Symphony in C
1947 Symphonie Concertante
1947 Haieff Divertimento
1946 4 Temperaments (P. Hindemith) / The Four Temperaments
1946 La Sonnambula
1941 Concerto Barocco
1941 Ballet Imperial
1937 Jeu de cartes
1935 Serenade (P. Tchaikovsky) / Serenade
1929 Prodigal Son
1929 Le Bal
1928 Apollo

For Russian Ballet Monte Carlo

1946 The Night Shadow
1946 Raymonda
1946 Night Shadow / La Sonnambula
1945 Pas de deux (Grand Adagio)
1944 Song of Norway
1944 Le Bourgeois gentilhomme
1944 and 1972 Danses concertantes
1941 Balustrade
1932 Cotillon
1932 Concurrence

For Diaghilev's Russian Ballet, Paris

1929 The Prodigal Son (S. Prokofiev) / Le Fils prodigue
1929 Ball (V. Rietti) / Le Bal
1928 The Beggar Gods (Handel) / Les Dieux mendiants
1928 Apollon Musagète (I. Stravinsky) / Apollon musagète
1927 The Triumph of Neptune (Lord Bernes) / Le Triomphe de Neptune
1927 Koscheka (A. Soge) / La Chatte
1926 Pastoral (J. Auric) / Pastorale
1926 Jack in the Box (E. Satie)
1926 Barabo (V. Rietti) / Barabau
1925 Song of the Nightingale (I. Stravinsky) / Le Chant du rossignol

BALANCHIN GEORGE

Real name - Georgy Melitonovich Balanchivadze

(born in 1904 - d. in 1983)

An outstanding choreographer of the 20th century, whose art contributed to the formation of a new direction in choreography. He brought back pure dance to the ballet stage, pushed into the background by narrative ballets. Founder of the American National Ballet School.

Georgy Melitonovich Balanchivadze was born on January 9 (22), 1904 in St. Petersburg into a musical family. His father - Meliton Antonovich Balanchivadze (1862-1937) - one of the founders of the Georgian school of composers, a student of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. The opera "Insidious Tamara", written by him in 1897, became one of the first Georgian operas, and its author was rightfully called the "Georgian Glinka".

Georgy's younger brother, Andrei Melitonovich Balanchivadze (1906–1992), also became a composer. He wrote several operas and ballets, 4 symphonies, concerts for piano and orchestra, music for numerous drama performances and films. His musical merits were highly appreciated in the Soviet Union: Andrei Balanchivadze became twice a laureate of the USSR State Prize, People's Artist of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor.

The life of Georgy Balanchivadze was completely different ... In 1914-1921. he studied at the Petrograd Theater School at the Mariinsky Theater, in 1920-1923. - at the conservatory. Already at school he staged dance numbers and composed music. Upon graduation, he was accepted into the troupe of the Petrograd Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1922-1924. staged dances for artists who united in the experimental group "Young Ballet", in 1923 staged dances in the opera "The Golden Cockerel" by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov at the Maly Opera House.

In 1924, Georgy Balanchivadze went on tour to Germany as part of a group of ballet dancers, who in the same year were admitted to the troupe “Russian Ballet of S. P. Diaghilev”. In France, with the light hand of the famous entrepreneur Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, Georgy Balanchivadze turns into Georges Balanchine, more familiar to the European ear. And later, already in the USA, in George Balanchine. It was under this name that he entered the history of art as one of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century.

But back to France. Here Balanchine became the main choreographer of the Russian Ballet troupe. In 1925-1929. he performed ten ballet performances and directed dances in many operas. Balanchine's Russian Seasons shook Europe for four years. In the productions of the young choreographer, the influence of the outstanding director V.E. Meyerhold was felt. For the first time, features of the future "Balanchine style" - a synthesis of classical and modern - appeared in the ballet "Apollo Musaget" (1928), in which the choreographer turned to academic classical dance, updating and enriching it to adequately reveal the music of IF Stravinsky. Since that time, the long-term friendship and cooperation between Balanchine and Stravinsky began.

After the death of Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1929), Balanchine worked for revue programs, at the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen, and in the Russian Ballet Monte Carlo troupe founded in 1932. In 1933 he became the head of the Balle 1933 troupe, among the productions of this period - The Seven Deadly Sins and The Wanderer. In the same year, at the invitation of the American art lover and philanthropist Lincoln Kerstein, he moved to America.

In 1934, together with L. Kerstein, Balanchine organized the School of American Ballet in New York and, on its basis, the American Balle troupe, for which he created Serenade (music by P. Tchaikovsky; revised in 1940 one of the most famous ballets of the choreographer), "Fairy Kiss" and "Playing Cards" by Stravinsky (both - 1937), as well as two of the most famous ballets from his repertoire "Concerto Baroque" to music by JS Bach (1940) and "Balle Emperial" to music by Tchaikovsky (1941). Balanchine directed the troupe, which was renamed the New York City Balle (from 1948) until the end of his days, and over the years she performed about 150 of his works.

By the 1960s, it became obvious that, thanks to George Balanchine, the United States had its own national classical ballet troupe and repertoire that was known throughout the world, and a national style of performance was formed at the School of American Ballet.

Balanchine's repertoire as a choreographer includes performances of various genres. He created a two-act ballet "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (music by F. Mendelssohn, 1962) and a three-act "Don Quixote" by N.D. Nabokov (1965), new versions of old ballets or individual ensembles of them: a one-act version of Swan Lake ( 1951) and The Nutcracker (1954) by PI Tchaikovsky, variations from Raymonda by AK Glazunov (1961), Coppelia by L. Delibes (1974). However, the greatest development in his work was given to plotless ballets, which used music that was often not intended for dance: suites, concerts, instrumental ensembles, less often symphonies. The content of the new type of ballet created by Balanchine is not a presentation of events, not the experiences of the heroes and not a stage show (sets and costumes play a role subordinate to choreography), but a dance image. Invariably relying on the classical school, Balanchine discovered new possibilities contained in this system, developed and enriched it.

Along with ballets, Balanchine staged many dances in musicals, films and operas: "Eugene Onegin" by P. I. Tchaikovsky, "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by M. I. Glinka.

The attitude towards George Balanchine in the Soviet Union was ambivalent. On the one hand, as if his own, a pupil of the St. Petersburg ballet school. On the other hand, he was often criticized for “abstract ballets, which are of a sophisticated aesthetic and erotic character ... Striving for outwardly spectacular choreographic constructions, Balanchine sometimes deliberately distorts the lines and movements of classical dance ... So, in his productions for the New York City Balle "Excerpts from the ballet Swan Lake (1951) and the ballet The Nutcracker (1954) Balanchine composed a new choreography, distorting the essence of Tchaikovsky's works ...". And in general, what is this news - the American ballet school? After all, it is known “that in the field of ballet we are ahead of the rest of the world” ...

Nevertheless, George Balanchine visited the Soviet Union on several occasions. In 1962, the first tour of the "New York City Balle" he headed to the USSR took place. In addition to Moscow and Leningrad, George Balanchine also visited Tbilisi, where he met with his brother Andrei, whom he had not seen for almost 40 years. Their meeting was warm and touching, but when, after toasts and libations, Andrei began to "treat" his brother with his music - and this lasted about two hours - there was an embarrassment: Balanchine rested his head on his hands and did not utter a single word of praise. “I just couldn't, Andrei wants me to stage a ballet to his music. But this is beyond my strength, ”he later admitted.

On the same visit, Balanchine also visited Kutaisi, at the grave of his father, Meliton Balanchivadze. The death of my father was terrible and symbolic. He developed gangrene in his leg. Doctors told the composer that without amputation, he would face certain death. The old man refused: “So that I, Meliton Balanchivadze, hobble on one leg? Never!" Doctors and relatives continued to insist, but in vain. “I’m not afraid of death,” he said with a shrug. - Death is a beautiful girl who will come and embrace me. I'm looking forward to it. " He died two days later. George learned this story from his brother. She literally shook him. “I would act like a father,” he kept repeating.

In Tbilisi, George Balanchine meets a young Georgian journalist Melor Sturua. It so happened that later, at the end of the 60s, Sturua, already a well-known journalist in the USSR, was sent to New York as Izvestia's own correspondent. There, their acquaintance was renewed, and then grew into a friendship, which lasted until the death of the outstanding choreographer. Thanks to the testimony of Melor Sturua, many facts from the life of Balanchine became known, which allowed us to better understand this extraordinary person.

George Balanchine inherited from his father masculine beauty, love of music and an epicurean character. He was an excellent toastmaster, knew a lot about wine and could give odds to any first-class chef in Tbilisi or New York. “I have a love for beauty and a feeling of beauty in love from my father,” he said. “And what could be more beautiful than women and music and the dance that connects them!”

In life, he was surprisingly gentle, kind, delicate. He even liked to call himself, quoting Mayakovsky, "a cloud in his pants." But when it came to his craft, Balanchine became tough and could offend even the people he loved most. His uncompromising art was limitless. Balanchine himself was a hard worker in art. “Sweat comes out first, a lot of sweat,” he liked to say. - And then beauty comes. And then only if you are lucky and God has heard your prayers. "

When Balanchine's health deteriorated in the early 1980s, loved ones insisted that he put his ballets on paper and name his successor at the New York City Ball. But talk about the future, as well as about the past, irritated Balanchine. He believed that there is only one time - the present, and called to enjoy it.

Balanchine said: “When I am gone, other masters will teach my dancers. Then my dancers will leave too. Another tribe will come. They will all swear by my name and stage and dance Balanchine's ballets, but they will no longer be mine. There are things that die with you, there is nothing you can do about it. But there is nothing tragic about that either. "

George Balanchine died on April 30, 1983. The New York City Ballee did not cancel the play scheduled for that evening. Just before the opening of the curtain, Lincoln Kerstein came to the fore, once bringing Balanchine to America to teach the New World classical dance, and said that Balanchine “is no longer with us. He is with Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky "...

5. George George Harrison is the only Beatles who grew up in a large and close-knit family. He is the youngest of the four Beatles and the youngest of four children of Harold and Louise Harrison. George was born on February 25, 1943 at 12 Arnold Grove, Wavertree, Liverpool.

33. George George settled in a long, one-story, brightly colored "bungalow" in Escher. The Bungalow sits on a private property owned by the National Trust, on an estate that looks like two peas in a pod that surrounds John and Ringo's homes. Through the gate