George Balanchine and Arthur Mitchell rehearsing The Four Temperaments (1958). Photographer: Martha Swope. Courtesy of New York City Ballet Archives, Ballet Society Collection.

New York, New York, November 10, 2003 -- With its new multi-media exhibition The Enduring Legacy of George Balanchine, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts highlights the unparalleled accomplishments of this great artist who created a repertoire, a style, a company, and a school and set new standards that continue to flourish and influence ballet throughout the world. Part of the worldwide celebration of the centennial of Balanchine’s birth, the exhibition opens December 3, 2003 and continues through April 24, 2004. It consists of selected photographs, supplemented by original designs, correspondence, costumes, and set models. Videotapes and excerpts from oral histories will be among the materials drawn primarily from the Library’s Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Additional material has been loaned by the New York City Ballet Archives and the School of American Ballet. Public programs in the Library’s Bruno Walter Auditorium will complement the exhibition. Admission is free to both the exhibition and the program series at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY.

Jacqueline Z. Davis, the Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, noted in her announcement of this exhibition, “The Library has a long history of Balanchine-related projects, among them preservation of rare film, video documentation of repertory, and an ongoing oral history project on dancers, designers, staffs, and collaborators from the School of American Ballet, Ballet Society, and New York City Ballet. We are delighted to offer this special exhibition as the Library’s centennial tribute to George Balanchine.”

Madeleine Nichols, Curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, noted “The Enduring Legacy of George Balanchine focuses on the lasting achievement built and consolidated in New York City by one of the world’s most significant artists. The Library materials concern every aspect of George Balanchine’s work. We have built a virtual edifice that is displayed in the Library’s online catalog so that visitors can clearly see the evolution of Balanchine as a creative force.”

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1904, Balanchine worked in Europe from 1924 until 1934, when he moved to the United States. New York City was his home base from then until his death in 1983. It is where he co-founded with Lincoln Kirstein two of the dance world’s most important institutions: the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet. His school and company have developed performers and teachers and have nourished schools and companies throughout the United States and around the world. New York remains home to these cultural institutions and to The George Balanchine Trust and The George Balanchine Foundation, which preserve his work.

Set model by Rouben Ter-Arutunian for The Nutcracker (1964 production). The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

The exhibition opens with several photographs from Balanchine’s youth and a few artifacts from his early years choreographing in Europe, but almost immediately turns to his arrival in New York with a copy of the 1933 letter Lincoln Kirstein wrote to A. Everett Austin, Jr., Director of the Wadsworth Atheneum, about his wish to bring Balanchine to New York City (“He is an honest man, a serious artist and I’d stake my life on his talent...He could achieve a miracle.”) that resulted in Austin sponsoring Balanchine’s immigration. A historic photograph from Balanchine’s first work in America, Serenade, shows the student performers from the School of American Ballet giving the first performance on June 10, 1934.

Photographs depict the long and inspired creative partnership between Balanchine and composer Igor Stravinsky that began in 1928 with Apollo, described by Balanchine as “the turning point of my life.” A 1957 photograph of Balanchine and Stravinsky during rehearsal for Agon, together with other rehearsal and performance photographs, shows the power of this breakthrough ballet. Tanaquil Le Clercq, eventually one of Balanchine’s ballerina muses and wives, is seen in a 1940 audition for the School of American Ballet. Besides the photographs of her dancing in his ballets, there are photographs on display that she took of her husband.

The magic of The Nutcracker, Balanchine’s first full-length work and the production that gave rise to an American holiday performance tradition, is recalled in photographs and the costume for Marie, the young protagonist. Also included are three set models by Rouben Ter-Arutunian for the new production made for the New York City Ballet’s move to the New York State Theater in 1964. Costume and set designs for such ballets as L’Errante, Alma Mater, Le Baiser de la Fée, Ballet Imperial, The Seven Deadly Sins, Coppélia, and Davidsbundlertänze  evoke the significance of these Balanchine works.

Catalogs, souvenir programs, and house programs give tantalizing glimpses into New York seasons and tours. Window cards from the musicals On Your Toes (1936) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938) are among the artifacts attesting to Balanchine’s success as a Broadway choreographer.

Some of the key letters featured in the exhibition include: a rare hand-written letter by Balanchine to Kirstein from Paris in 1947 detailing his plans for Symphony in C; Morton Baum’s 1948 letter to Kirstein congratulating the ballet company on a successful season at City Center and inviting the company to become a resident of the theater; and Kirstein’s 1959 letter to the Ford Foundation, declaring that “New York is the only place in the world where we could have built this company.” Other documents give the specifics of the Foundation’s unprecedented largesse to both the company and the school, ensuring their financial stability and stirring both envy and excitement in the American dance community in the mid-1960s.

The exhibit is co-curated by Nancy Lassalle and Madeleine Nichols.  Mrs. Lassalle is a former director of education for New York City Ballet and an emeritus member  of the company’s board of directors.  Ms. Nichols is curator of the Library’s Jerome Robbins Dance Division. After its run at the Library, the exhibition will be displayed at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs, New York, where it will begin a year-long residency on Memorial Day Weekend.

Public Programs
In conjunction with the exhibition, four lectures have been scheduled as part of the Library’s Public Program series in the Bruno Walter Auditorium. Admission to these programs is free and on a first-come, first-served basis. For further information, telephone 212.642.0142.

Saturday, January 24, 2004, 3 p.m.
Cabin in the Sky: The Collaboration among Boris Aronson, George Balanchine and Vernon Duke. Lecture by Constance Valis Hill. Cabin in the Sky, a Broadway musical with an all-black cast, was directed and choreographed by George Balanchine.

Saturday, February 21, 2004, 3 p.m.
Balanchine in Paris. Lecture by Lynn Garafola.

Thursday, February 26, 2004, 6 p.m.
Before New York City Ballet: George Balanchine in the 1940s. Lecture by Nancy Reynolds.

Thursday, March 4, 2004, 6 p.m.
Poetry in Motion: Stravinsky and Balanchine’s Musical Bond. Lecture by Charles M. Joseph.
The coherence that Igor Stravinsky and George Balanchine brought to their work stems from a mutual understanding of each other’s art form. Balanchine was well versed in music theory and often turned to composition as a way of expressing himself. A few of his short compositions will be performed.


The Enduring Legacy of George Balanchine will be on view from December 3, 2003 through April 24, 2004 in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York. Exhibition hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 12 noon to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 12 noon to 8 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and holidays.  Admission is free.  For further information, telephone 212.870.1630, or visit www.nypl.org. For Bruno Walter Auditorium programs, telephone 212.642.0142.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the leadership support of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman.  Additional support for exhibitions has been provided by Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg and the Miriam and Harold Steinberg Foundation.

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Contact: Rima Corben or Herb Scher at 212.704.8600.

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