George Balanchine (born Georgi Balanchivadze) was born in St. Petersburg in 1904, the son of a Georgian composer. He was trained as a dancer at the Imperial Ballet Academy and, after graduating in 1921, began his first professional engagement. At the same time, he studied piano and composition for three years at the conservatory in his hometown. He began creating his own choreographies as early as 1920. In 1924, during a tour of Germany with the Soviet State Dancers, he took the opportunity to introduce himself to Serge Diaghilev, who engaged him as a dancer and choreographer for his "Ballets Russes". This also marked the beginning of his intensive collaboration and friendship with Igor Stravinsky. After Diaghilev’s death in 1929, Balanchine worked sporadically in London, Copenhagen, Monte Carlo and Paris and founded his company "Les Ballets 1933". At the invitation of Lincoln Kirstein, he moved to New York in August 1933 and became director of the newly founded "School of American Ballet", from whose students he assembled his first American company, which made its New York debut in 1935 as the "American Ballet". Between 1935 and 1951, Balanchine occasionally choreographed for Broadway and for several Hollywood films, but the main focus of his work was the "Ballet Society", of which he was a co-founder. In 1948, it was transformed into the "New York City Ballet" and moved into the City Center. Here Balanchine created his most important choreographies, with which he also toured Europe. In 1962, he traveled to the Soviet Union for the first time with the New York City Ballet. In spring 1964, Balanchine and his company moved into the New York State Theater, which had been built according to his wishes. George Balanchine died in New York in 1983. Today, his choreographies are managed worldwide by the Balanchine Trust.