Episode 12.1 : Balanchine's Early Life (Part 1) - a podcast by New York City Ballet

In an extended conversation with Silas Farley, cultural scholar Elizabeth Kendall, author of the 2013 book Balanchine & the Lost Muse Revolution & the Making of a Choreographer, discusses her extensive research into Balanchine's childhood and youth in in pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia. The first half of this two-part Hear the Dance episode on Balanchine's early life focuses on Georgi Balanchivadze's origins — including the lives of his parents, his early childhood years in the Finnish countryside, and the beginnings of his dance training at the Imperial Theater School. (42:52)

Continue listening to Part 2 of this episode.

Music
Wily Tamara by Meliton Balanchivadze
The Sleeping Beauty by Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky

Reading List (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2)
Balanchine and the Lost Muse: Revolution and the Making of a Choreographer by Elizabeth Kendall

Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky: Interviews with George Balanchine by Solomon Volkov

Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets by George Balanchine and Francis Mason

Choura: The Memoirs of Alexandra Danilova By Alexandra Danilova

Split Seconds: A Remembrance by Tamara Geva

Further episodes of City Ballet The Podcast

Further podcasts by New York City Ballet

Website of New York City Ballet