A year of Balanchine ballets and influences

To honor the centennial of George Balanchine’s birth, New York City Ballet -- the company he founded and whose artistic profile he shaped -- has planned a celebration focusing on the influences that shaped the master choreographer’s creative profile as well as the visionary scope of his extensive repertory.

At a news conference Friday at the New York State Theater, the troupe’s home base, Peter Martins, its ballet master in chief, outlined the fall and winter season programming for “Balanchine 100: The Centennial Celebration.”

There will be premieres by guest choreographers Boris Eifman and Susan Stroman as well as by Martins and resident choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. In addition, a touring schedule in conjunction with the centennial will include consecutive one-week engagements at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in October.

Specific programs have not been announced, but Martins promised “lots and lots of Balanchine.”

Born Jan. 22, 1904, in St. Petersburg, Russia, and trained at the noted Maryinsky Theater’s Imperial Ballet School, Balanchine created an unparalleled repertory of ballets. After beginning with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and continuing with other European companies, he arrived in this country in 1933 and proceeded to make ballet a serious, intellectually challenging 20th century art form. After working with several short-lived troupes, he co-founded New York City Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein in 1948.

For the company’s winter season (Jan. 6-Feb. 29, following the annual December “Nutcracker” run), the theme will be “Balanchine’s Heritage: The Early Years.” Programming will emphasize choreographers who influenced Balanchine -- Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, August Bournonville and Michel Fokine -- and ballets by Balanchine in which their influence is most evident. The season will also include some of his earliest extant works, such as “Apollo” and “The Prodigal Son.” Of the 56 performances, 41 will be devoted to full-evening ballets.

In the spring (April 27-June 27), the focus will shift to “Balanchine’s Vision: Building a Repertory,” and the season will be divided into three programming blocks based on their musical sources: a European Festival, an American Festival and, finally, a Russian Festival.

Although there are many contemporary choreographers whose work reflects the Balanchine aesthetic, Stroman and Eifman would not be considered among them. Stroman, the multiple Tony Award-winning Broadway choreographer and director (she wore both hats for “The Producers”), will choreograph a full-evening work premiering on Jan. 23. “Peter asked me to do something with American music as a jumping-off point,” she said at the news conference. Her two-act work, set in the 1920s, will juxtapose a dramatic, narrative-driven first act, set to Irving Berlin songs, with a comedic second act with music by Walter Donaldson.

Eifman, whose St. Petersburg company has toured this country annually since 1998, said through an interpreter that his new work “is not going to be a biographical ballet, but a ballet about the contribution of what he created. I would like this ballet to reflect the inspiration I received from Balanchine.” The score is to include Bach compositions and the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony. The premiere is June 18.

Wheeldon’s work, his 10th for the company and his first set to a commissioned score (by Scottish composer James MacMillan), will have its premiere May 8. Martins has not yet selected the music for his new ballet, scheduled for June 2.

Martins said many guest artists -- dancers, musicians and conductors -- will participate throughout the centennial. Valery Gergiev will conduct the June 8 opening program of the Russian Festival.