Contact: Mel Schierman
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THE GEORGE BALANCHINE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF ITS YOUTUBE CHANNEL
New York City — The George Balanchine Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of the official GBF YouTube channel. Taking advantage of the ubiquitous and ever expanding digital media available to the general public, the GBF YouTube channel will launch with content from our Video Archives Collection. We believe it is critically important to share this work, and to this end the Foundation will begin by posting nearly 50 video interviews from the Collection.
The GBF's Video Archive Collection is designed to document as closely as possible Mr. Balanchine's original intent as he choreographed his ballets. We engaged dancers for whom Mr. Balanchine either created or taught his ballets to coach today's dancers in these roles. These recorded coaching sessions provide invaluable insights into Mr. Balanchine's creative process. At the end of each coaching session, a dance historian or critic interviews the original interpreter(s) in depth in order to further flesh out Mr. Balanchine's ideas. These interviews will now be readily accessible to dance professionals, students and the general public through our YouTube channel.
Nancy Reynolds, dance historian, writer, and the Foundation's director of research, conceived and continues to direct the program, assisted by independent film maker and film professor Virginia Brooks, Gus Reed, a New York City based film maker and Paul Boos, a répétiteur with the George Balanchine Trust and former dancer under Balanchine with the New York City Ballet.
Please visit the GBF YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/blnchn. For a full listing of the George Balanchine Video Archives please visit: https://balanchine.org/03/gbfvideoarchives_videos.html. The complete versions of the Archive videos (complete versions include the entire coaching session) are available through many public libraries and universities through our partnership with Alexander Street Press. http://alexanderstreet.com/discipline/music-dance
The George Balanchine Foundation (www.balanchine.org) 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, with the goal of advancing high standards of excellence in dance and its allied arts. Among the Foundation's major initiatives are the Video Archives (https://balanchine.org/03/gbfvideoarchives.html), in which dancers who worked closely with Balanchine teach and coach their roles to the dancers of today (Interpreters Archive) or recreate Balanchine ballets that are rarely performed and in danger of disappearing (Archive of Lost Choreography). Legendary dancers who have taken part in this project include Alicia Markova, Maria Tallchief, Frederic Franklin, Alicia Alonso, Melissa Hayden, Allegra Kent, Todd Bolender, Merrill Ashley, Suzanne Farrell, Rosella Hightower, Marie-Jeanne, Violette Verdy, Edward Villella, Patricia Wilde, Yvonne Mounsey, and Helgi Tomasson, working with leading dancers from such companies as New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, among others.
In 2007 the Foundation announced the completion of another major initiative, the online publication of the Balanchine Catalogue, a fully searchable database giving first-performance details of all known dances created by Balanchine, supplemented by lists of companies staging the ballets, a bibliography, a videography, reference resources, a database of roles Balanchine performed, and additional related materials (https://balanchine.org/03/balanchinecataloguenew.html). The project was made possible by a leadership grant from The Jerome Robbins Foundation.
