How Did George Balanchine Influence The World

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George Balanchine is one of the most well-known dancers and choreographers in the world. He is known as one of the leading classical contemporary choreographers in the world (“George Balanchine”). He headed the USA’s first ballet school and created a ballet company which is still one of the best in the world. His works were very prominent during the 1950s and 1960s. Although George Balanchine had a great influence on dance in the 20th century, he was also very controversial. Balanchine was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was training at schools in Russia for dance and music by the age of ten (“George Balanchine”). While growing up, there was a revolution and a civil war in Russia (Klem). Because of these wars, he grew up in hardship …show more content…
First, he got married, divorced, and remarried to have four wives total. This was not common at that time because people believed once you get married, you should stay married to that person (Rich). After he founded New York City Ballet, many dancers joined the company. Balanchine pursued many of his dancers and would punish them if the feeling was not returned by giving them little to no attention and not giving them as good of roles. He would also get jealous of the men whom were with some of the dancers that he had feelings for and then punish those men as well. One of Balanchine’s most famous dancers that he pursued was a girl named Suzanne Farrell. Balanchine would clearly favor in class and casting. Many people believe that Balanchine’s obsessiveness and possessiveness were the reasons she was isolated from the rest of the company (Gottlieb). In terms of family life, Balanchine also made it very clear publicly that he did not want children, which was also vey uncommon for that time (Rich). Balanchine had a very different view on family life and didn’t seem to care that it was, for the most part, not what society pressured people to
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