NEW YORK CITY - Complete premiere information about every known work staged or choreographed by George Balanchine---more than 400 ballets, opera dances, operettas, movies, staged choral works, musicals, straight plays, concert works, television, and circus---is now available online, free of charge, to the general public. Compiled by scholars and researchers in many parts of the world and prepared with Balanchine's participation, the Balanchine Catalogue covers a period of more than sixty years---from La Nuit at the Petrograd Theater Ballet School, choreographed in 1920 or earlier, to a revision of Stravinsky's Variations for Orchestra for the New York City Ballet in 1982, Balanchine's final work.

Records in the Balanchine Catalogue, assembled from opening-night programs and supporting material, give full details of music, production, and cast and are supplemented by notes on the work, revisions, stagings by other companies, and televised performances. Also included are databases covering Balanchine's professional life and the roles he danced; an extensive, up-to-date bibliography, videography, and filmography; lists of festivals Balanchine directed and tours undertaken by his American companies; an annotated guide to further research; and cross references to related items. A Source Notes field cites rare published and archival information?especially information obtained from individuals?that clarifies or corrects programs, or constructs records for works for which programs do not exist or have not been located.

Searches may be initiated from a single search window (General Search) or by clicking on an Advanced Search option, which allows visitors to search for such specific information as costume designer or conductor.

More than 300 dance companies, schools and universities have been licensed to dance Balanchine ballets since his death in 1983, a record unequalled in the world of contemporary ballet and proof of the Balanchine repertory's enduring importance and vitality to both performers and audiences.

“I am thrilled that the Balanchine Catalogue is now online at the Balanchine Foundation's Web site,” says New York City Ballet Master-in-Chief Peter Martins. “Having this extraordinary treasure trove of information so readily accessible is a tremendous asset, and I'm certain it will prove invaluable to dance scholars and the public alike.”

The Balanchine Catalogue, five years in the making, is an expansion and update of the first and only catalogue raisonné for a choreographer, Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works. Under the direction of Leslie George Katz, Nancy Lassalle, and Harvey Simmonds, the book was published to critical acclaim by the Eakins Press Foundation in 1983 and revised in 1984. For the electronic edition, Nancy Reynolds, Director of Research for The George Balanchine Foundation, provided the editorial direction and led the research effort, assisted by dance scholars Susan Au, Monica Moseley and Robert Greskovic. Mel Schierman, the Foundation's administrator, oversaw the conversion of the material into digital form and programming by Electronic Scriptorium Ltd. of Leesburg, VA, and Ashley Cyber Services, LLC, of Purcellville, VA.

New York City Ballet Archivist Laura Raucher praises the Balanchine Catalogue's easy-to-use search engine: “The General Search combines information in all of the databases into one report, a feature many researchers will utilize and appreciate. . . . I believe the Browse feature on the search page provides an easy way for users who are interested in Balanchine and wish to learn more, but have no research agenda, to peruse the Catalogue at their leisure. . . . How exciting that this is available to the public, especially as we become more dependent on the Web. The Balanchine Foundation has done an amazing job with a mammoth project.”

Dr. Michelle Potter, Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, believes the database is a landmark achievement. “The Balanchine Catalogue is a major resource for all those interested in the incredible legacy of George Balanchine,” she says. “It is instantly accessible to a world-wide audience and provides authoritative, up-to-date information. It is also a source of much fascinating contextual information and will, I am sure, be the starting point for further research about the role of ballet in culture and society.”

The electronic edition of the Balanchine catalogue was made possible by a leadership grant from The Jerome Robbins Foundation, with additional funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Furthermore: A Program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund. The publisher and copyright holder of the book version of the Catalogue, Eakins Press Foundation, contributed the rights necessary for this project.

The George Balanchine Foundation is a not for profit corporation established in 1983. Its mission is to create programs that educate the public and further Balanchine's work and aesthetic in order to facilitate high standards of excellence in dance and related arts.