New York City — The George Balanchine Foundation is pleased to announce six additions to its archival video series. These videos are devoted to examining selected passages of Balanchine's choreography in detail. In a studio setting, originators or major interpreters of some of his greatest works teach, coach, and discuss their roles in these ballets with dancers of today. The overall goal of the Video Archives Program is to create an original "manuscript" of Balanchine ballets by preserving not only the steps but the nuances of the choreography as conceived and taught to the dancers by Balanchine himself.

Coaches in the 2017 series include Violette Verdy, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Merrill Ashley, Peter Martins, Kay Mazzo, Jacques d'Amboise, Patricia McBride and Edward Villella. Participating dancers are from New York City Ballet and Charlotte Ballet.

The release of the six new videos brings the series total to fifty-five. Edited masters are preserved in the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and, for a nominal fee, copies of these are made available to non-circulating research repositories. Currently seventy-eight libraries worldwide house the videos which are also available through the Alexander Street Press Dance in Video series.

Nancy Reynolds, dance historian, writer, and the Foundation's director of research, conceived and continues to direct the program, assisted by independent filmmaker and film professor Virginia Brooks, Gus Reed, a New York City based filmmaker, and Paul Boos a répétiteur with the George Balanchine Trust.

For a complete list of the George Balanchine Video Archives and the facilities housing them, please visit: https://balanchine.org/03/gbfvideoarchives_videos.html