| 22 January 1904 |
Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivadze, son of a composer, is born in St. Petersburg, Russia. |
| 1913 |
Balanchivadze enrolls in the Imperial Theater Ballet School in St. Petersburg. |
| 1915 |
Balanchivadze performs on stage for the first time, playing a cupid in Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theater, an experience he later credits with inspiring him to pursue a career in ballet. |
| 1917 |
The Imperial Theater School and the Mariinsky Theater are closed in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Balanchine finds work as a messenger, saddler’s assistant, and pianist for a silent-film theater. |
| 1918 |
Balanchivadze resumes his studies at the renamed Petrograd Theater Ballet School. The Mariinsky Theater reopens as the State Theater of Opera and Ballet. |
| ca. 1919 |
Balanchivadze creates his first choreography for student ballet concerts. He embarks upon three years of study at the Petrograd Conservatory of Music, focusing on piano and music theory. He also begins to compose music. |
| 1921 |
Balanchivadze graduates with honors from the Petrograd Theater Ballet School and becomes a dancer at the State Theater of Opera and Ballet. |
| 1922 |
Balanchivadze choreographs for the School’s graduation performances, dances at the State Theater, and organizes the Young Ballet, a small experimental company which performs in and around Petrograd and Moscow. |
| 1923 |
Debut performance of the Young Ballet. |
| 1924 |
Balanchivadze joins a touring troupe, Principal Dancers of the Soviet State Ballet, with dancers Tamara Geva and Alexandra Danilova, among others. While performing in Germany, the troupe decides not to return to the Soviet Union. After an engagement in London, they travel to Paris to audition for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Diaghilev hires them and changes Balanchivadze’s name to George Balanchine. |
| 1925-1927 |
Balanchine choreographs ballets for the Opera de Monte-Carlo and the Ballets Russes. His ballets during this time include L’enfant et les Sortilèges, a reworking of Léonide Massine’s Le Chant du Rossignol, Barabau, La Pastorale, Jack in the Box, The Triumph of Neptune, and La Chatte. |
| 1928 |
Apollon Musagète (later named Apollo) |
| 1929 |
Prodigal Son
Diaghilev dies in Venice. The Ballets Russes disbands. |
| 1930-1933 |
Balanchine continues to choreograph for a number of companies in Paris, London, Copenhagen, and Monte Carlo, including the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo and Les Ballets 1933, a troupe he formed with Boris Kochno that presented his choreography exclusively. |
| 1933 |
Lincoln Kirstein meets Balanchine at a cocktail party in London and invites him to the United States to establish an American ballet school and company. Balanchine arrives in New York on October 17. |
| 1934 |
Kirstein and Balanchine, with the financial support of Edward M. M. Warburg, establish the School of American Ballet, which opens on January 2 at 637 Madison Avenue. Balanchine choreographs Serenade to Tschaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major for students. Serenade, his first ballet created in the United States, premieres at Woodland, the Warburg estate near White Plains, on June 10. |
| 1935 |
Balanchine and Kirstein establish the American Ballet, a professional company, with dancers from the School of American Ballet. American Ballet’s first professional season includes the official premiere of Serenade. The Company briefly tours New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
Balanchine is hired as ballet master of the Metropolitan Opera, and the American Ballet (to be called American Ballet Ensemble) becomes its resident ballet company. |
| 1936 |
Balanchine sets ballets for operas, including a danced version of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, in addition to dances for Broadway productions, including Ziegfield Follies: 1936 Edition and On Your Toes. Some of his dancers also appear with Ballet Caravan, a small touring company founded by Kirstein. |
| 1937 |
Balanchine revives Apollon Musagète and choreographs The Card Party and Le Baiser de la Fée for his first Stravinsky Festival, presented by the American Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera House. He also creates dances for the Broadway musical Babes in Arms. |
| 1938 |
Balanchine and the American Ballet dancers end their association with the Metropolitan Opera, and Balanchine takes some of his dancers to Hollywood, where he choreographs dances for The Goldwyn Follies. He continues to choreograph for Broadway musicals, including I Married an Angel and The Boys from Syracuse. |
| 1939 |
Balanchine becomes a United States citizen. He directs dances for the Hollywood film of On Your Toes. |
| 1940 |
Balanchine choreographs the Broadway musicals Keep Off the Grass, Louisiana Purchase, and Cabin in the Sky, with Katherine Dunham, and he directs dances for the film I Was an Adventuress. |
| 1941 |
Balanchine and Kirstein establish the American Ballet Caravan, using dancers from the American Ballet, Ballet Caravan, and the School of American Ballet. The Company embarks upon a five-month good-will tour of South America, which disbands at the tour’s end. Balanchine choreographs Ballet Imperial (later renamed Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2) and Concerto Barocco. |
| 1944-1946 |
Balanchine is hired as resident choreographer of Sergei Denham’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, for which he creates Danses Concertantes, Raymonda (with Alexandra Danilova after Petipa), and Night Shadow (later called La Sonnambula). American audiences are introduced to Balanchine’s choreography during the Ballet Russe’s nine-month annual tours throughout the United States. |
| 1946 |
Balanchine and Kirstein establish Ballet Society, a company supported by subscription. Its first performance takes place at the Central High School for Needle Trades in New York, for which Balanchine choreographs The Four Temperaments to a commissioned score from Hindemith in 1940. |
| 1947 |
Balanchine works for six months as ballet master of the Paris Opera Ballet, for which he choreographs Le Palais de Cristal (renamed Symphony in C in 1948 for its American premiere). He choreographs Theme and Variations for Ballet Theatre. |
| 1948 |
Balanchine choreographs Orpheus to a commissioned score by Stravinsky. Following the success of the ballet, Morton Baum, of the New York City Center of Music and Drama, invites Balanchine’s troupe to join the organization as its resident ballet company, renamed the New York City Ballet. Its first performance takes place at City Center on October 11. |
| 1949 |
Firebird |
| 1951 |
La Valse
Swan Lake |
| 1952 |
Scotch Symphony |
| 1954 |
The Nutcracker (Balanchine’s first full-length work for New York City Ballet)
Western Symphony
Ivesiana |
| 1956 |
Allegro Brillante |
| 1957 |
Square Dance
Agon |
| 1958 |
Stars and Stripes |
| 1960 |
Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
Liebeslieder Walzer |
| 1962 |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The New York City Ballet tours the Soviet Union. It is Balanchine’s first visit to his native country since he emigrated 38 years earlier. |
| 1964 |
New York City Ballet moves into its new home, The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which was designed by Philip Johnson in consultation with Balanchine and Kirstein. It had long been the dream of Balanchine and Kirstein to build a theater for dance. |
| 1965 |
Don Quixote, in which Balanchine plays the title role. |
| 1967 |
Jewels |
| 1972 |
Balanchine stages a week-long Stravinsky Festival, for which he choreographs eight new ballets, including Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Duo Concertant, Symphony in Three Movements, and Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fée. |
| 1974 |
Variations pour une Porte et un Soupir
Coppélia (with Alexandra Danilova, after Petipa) |
| 1975 |
Balanchine stages a three-week festival honoring Ravel, for which he choreographs Tzigane, Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Sonatine, among others. |
| 1976 |
Chaconne
Union Jack |
| 1977 |
Vienna Waltzes |
| 1978 |
Ballo della Regina
Kammermusik No. 2 |
| 1980 |
Ballade
Robert Schumann’s “Davidsbündlertänze”
Walpurgisnacht Ballet |
| 1981 |
Balanchine stages a Tschaikovsky Festival at the New York City Ballet, for which he choreographs a new version of Mozartiana, which he originally created for Les Ballets 1933. |
| 1982 |
Balanchine directs the Stravinsky Centennial Celebration, during which 25 ballets set to Stravinsky’s music are performed by the New York City Ballet. |
| 1983 |
Balanchine dies in New York City on April 30. |