George Balanchine was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th-century. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical music.
The Nutcracker, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination. The plot is an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 1844 short story The Nutcracker, itself a retelling of E. T. A. Hoffmann's 1816 short story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The ballet's first choreographer was Marius Petipa, with whom Tchaikovsky had worked three years earlier on The Sleeping Beauty, assisted by Lev Ivanov. Although the complete and staged The Nutcracker ballet was not initially as successful as the 20-minute Nutcracker Suite that Tchaikovsky had premiered nine months earlier, it became popular in later years.
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's oldest ballet company and the longest continuously operating ballet company in North America.
Houston Ballet, operated by Houston Ballet Foundation, is a professional ballet company based in Houston, Texas. The company consists of 59 dancers and produces over 85 performances per year. It is the 5th largest ballet company in the United States.
Sacramento Ballet is a performing arts organization in Sacramento, California. It is the largest ballet company in California’s capital city.
Philadelphia Ballet is the largest ballet company in Philadelphia. The company's annual local season features six programs of classic pieces, such as George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, in addition to presentations of new works. The company's artistic director is Angel Corella.
Atlanta Ballet is a ballet company, located in Atlanta, Georgia. It is the longest continuously performing ballet company in the United States and the State Ballet of Georgia.
Edward Villella is an American ballet dancer and choreographer. He is frequently cited as America's most celebrated male dancer of ballet at the time. He has won numerous awards, including the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Special, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the National Medal of Arts.
The Minnesota Ballet is a ballet company and school located in Duluth, Minnesota. Founded in 1965 by Donna Harkins and Jan Gibson as the Duluth Civic Ballet, the company has since expanded into a touring company with seventeen professional artists. From 1992 to 2007 the Artistic Executive Director of the Minnesota Ballet was Allen Fields, who retired to become Artistic Director Emeritus. Fields acquired rights to works by choreographers including Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, and George Balanchine. He was succeeded by Robert Gardner. In 2019 Karl von Rabenau was appointed Artistic Director. The Minnesota Ballet entered its 54th season in 2019/20.
The Washington Ballet (TWB) is an ensemble of professional ballet dancers based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1976 by Mary Day and has been directed by Julie Kent since 2016.
The Cincinnati Ballet is a professional ballet company founded as Cincinnati Civic Ballet in 1958, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. After being registered as a company, it had its first performance in 1964.
Miami City Ballet is an American ballet company based in Miami Beach, Florida, led by artistic director Lourdes Lopez.
Barbara Anne Milberg Fisher was an American academic and professional dancer. She was professor emerita of English at the City College of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she taught for 29 years. She published several works, including on the life of Wallace Stevens. Prior to her academic career, under her maiden name, Barbara Milberg, she danced with the short-lived Ballet Society, founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein; became soloist with the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in its first decade; and then joined Jerome Robbins's newly formed Ballets: USA, touring Europe and the States with that company as a principal dancer.
Colorado Ballet encompasses a 31-member professional performing ballet company, a studio company for advanced dance students, an academy, and an education and outreach department. Based in downtown Denver, Colorado, Colorado Ballet serves more than 125,000 patrons each year.
Artem Vyacheslavovich Ovcharenko is a Russian classical ballet dancer. He is a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet and a guest artist with the Hamburg Ballet.
Iana Salenko is a Ukrainian-German ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer at the Berlin State Ballet.
Francisco Moncion was a charter member of the New York City Ballet. Over the course of his long career, spanning some forty years, he created roles in major works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and others. He was also a choreographer himself and a talented amateur painter.
Anna Ol is a Russian ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer in the Dutch National Ballet.
