TODAY 117 YEARS AGO George Balanchine saw the light of day and was to become one of the most important choreographers of the 20th century. Born Giorgi Balanchivadze in St. Petersburg, he trained at the Imperial Ballet School before creating his own choreographies. In Europe he worked with the impresario Serge Diaghilev and the composer Igor Stravinsky, before he finally came to New York and found his artistic home. With his two companies, American Ballet and later the New York City Ballet, he developed his typical style from 1934 onward: plotless, concertante ballets in which he brilliantly expressed his credo "See the music, hear the dance!". Clear structures and refined movements, but first and foremost musicality characterise his works. Most mentionable of all, he used the body alone as a means of expression and freed the dance from heavy sets, elaborate costumes and fanciful plots. In terms of movement, he became a pioneer because he let the dancers tilt and demanded unknown speed and attack. He opened up unimagined new directions for ballet - neoclassicism was born! Many works of Balanchine's extensive œuvre are performed to this day on the world's great stages. In Stuttgart, 14 of his ballets have entered the repertory; most recently the company performed the sparkling Symphony in C, which gracefully unites everything Balanchine stands for. On stage, the legacy of this giant of dance theatre lives on long after his death in New York in 1983.

Photo: Elisa Badenes, Matteo Miccini, Moacir de Oliveira, Alessandro Giaquinto, Ensemble, © Stuttgart Ballet