The NYCB, George Balanchine's house

The NYCB, George Balanchine's house

It is a unique adventure and unusual that the New York City Ballet, a company that in a few years managed to become one of the first world troops. When the Paris Opera Ballet, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg are the heirs of a century-old tradition, the NYCB started modestly after the Second World War, without much financial means or subsidies. 'states. And that is precisely what made it strong and continues to define it today.

On this virgin land, the genial George Balanchine - a Russian émigré from Georgia, trained in St. Petersburg and former dancer of the Imperial Ballet of Russia - shapes a troupe as he conceives and invents a revolutionary choreography based on a technique adapted from the Russian school in St. Petersburg, but totally innovative. Even today, the New York City Ballet is the home of George Balanchine: he is revered and his repertoire preserved and transmitted from generation to generation.

before the troupe, the birth of a school

But in the 1930s, America is a desert in ballet. New York is certainly the center of all sorts of exciting choreographic experiments, embodied in particular by Martha Graham, but classical ballet requires a school and a tradition that the United States lacks. Hence the idea of ​​creating a school first to train dancers. In 1934, for example, the School of American Ballet (SAB), which still exists today, provides almost all NYCB artists. And it is with these apprentices that Balanchine creates one of his masterpieces, Serenade, now in the repertory of all the great world companies, developing in this work an aesthetic that changes the face of classical ballet.

The school is in place. But with the adventures of the Second World War, it was not until 1946 that the Ballet Society was born, renamed New York City Ballet in 1948. There are then only two very short seasons on the stage of the City Center Theater or more small theaters. But the interpersonal skills of Lincoln Kirstein and his unique address book will soon make the New York City Ballet a major hub of New York and American cultural life. And because George Balanchine does not have to worry about any tradition, he does not stop during his whole career to appeal to foreign artists. In 1950, he invited the British Frederick Ashton who created Illuminations. The year before, Jerome Robbins joined the company to be immediately named Associate Artistic Director. This is the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration. Jerome Robbins brings George Balanchine his American culture already nourished by his experiences on Broadway (the choreography of West Side Story is him). Their dialogue, complicated as it was, has never stopped and defines what the NYCB still is today.

1960s, the golden age of the New York City Ballet

But it was not until 1964 that the company finally had its theater, the New York State Theater (now David H. Koch Theater) at the Lincoln Center in the West Side. Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine work closely with architect Philip Johnson to make this theater a stage and a hall for ballet and dance. Yes, NYCB is not the only company there, but the company has finally found its home. It's a golden era when the company is composed of major artists: Jacques d'Amboise, Patricia McBride, Arthur Mitchell, Violet Verdy, Edward Villella, Suzanne Farrell ...

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