The Mariinsky Theatre, the State Hermitage, the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music Art, the US Consulate General in St. Petersburg and the George Balanchine Foundation organized the celebrations. The events will run until June 7.
Ballet performances choreographed by Balanchine, his predecessors and followers, will be shown in the Mariinsky Theatre, said the theatre's press service. Among them are Balanchine's early works "Apollo", "The Prodigal Son" and "Serenade".
Mariinsky star Ulyana Lopatkina will dance several solos in the ballets. Jose Martinez (Opera de Paris), Peter Boal (New York City Ballet), Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg (London Royal Ballet), Galina Stepanenko and Andrei Bolotin (the Bolshoi Theatre) will star on the Mariinsky stage, as well.
On July 3 the three month long exposition "Balanchine's Age" will open in the State Hermitage. It features showpieces from the collection of the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music Art.
These showpieces deal with the St. Petersburg period in the choreographer's life (1920s) and his first professional steps. Most of them will be exhibited for the first time.
Among them are archive documents, photographs, theatre programs and sketches of the performances choreographed by young dancer Balanchine. Moreover, the exposition will feature photographs of Balanchine's performances in New York City Ballet, fragments from his shows and documentaries about the great choreographer.
The program also includes a research conference "Balanchine: the past, present and future" with leading Russian and US historians, critics and theatre figures.
George Balanchine (Georgy Balanchivadze) was born in St. Petersburg in 1904. Having graduated from the Imperial theatre school, he choreographed dances and miniatures in Petrograd's drama theatres and concert halls. His first performances date back to the 1920s. In 1924 he left Russia and joined the company of well-known ballet impresario Sergei Dyagilev (1872-1929), who organized the Russian Seasons in Paris. After that, American impresario Lincoln Kerstein invited him to the United States, where Balanchine founded his ballet school. It later turned into the glorious New York City Ballet.
The artistic system of George Balanchine combines the old school of classic dance and ultramodern ideas, traditions of St. Petersburg ballet and hard rhythms of the new age. His style was named neoclassicism. Balanchine's choreography had great influence on the development of ballet art in the 20th century.
