page_title: George Balanchine
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: George Balanchine / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Georgian composer Meliton Balanchivadze in the late 19th century. The father of George Balanchine.
context_page_description: George Balanchine was an American ballet choreographer who was one of the most influential 20th-century choreographers. 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.
  Born in St. Petersburg, Balanchine took the standards and technique from his time at the Imperial Ballet School and fused it with other schools of movement that he had adopted during his tenure on Broadway and in Hollywood, creating his signature "neoclassical style".
  He was a choreographer known for his musicality; he expressed music with dance and worked extensively with leading composers of his time like Igor Stravinsky. Balanchine was invited to America in 1933 by a young arts patron named Lincoln Kirstein, and together they founded the School of American Ballet. Along with Kirstein, Balanchine also co-founded the New York City Ballet.
context_section_description: Balanchine was born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze (Georgian: გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე) in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, son of Georgian opera singer and composer Meliton Balanchivadze, one of the founders of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre and later the culture minister of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, which became independent in 1918 but was later subsumed into the Soviet Union.
  The rest of the Georgian side of Balanchine's family comprised largely artists and soldiers. Little is known of Balanchine's Russian, maternal side. His mother, Meliton's second wife, Maria Nikolayevna Vasilyeva, is said to be the daughter of Nikolai von Almedingen, a German, who later left Russia and abandoned his family, causing Maria to taker her mothers name. She was fond of ballet and viewed it as a form of social advancement from the lower reaches of St. Petersburg society. She was eleven years younger than Meliton and rumored to have been his former housekeeper, although "she had at least some culture in her background" as she could play piano well.
caption: Balanchine's father Meliton
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