For Balanchine, a tri-country salute

The Russian city where Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivadze was born a little over 100 years ago will pay tribute to him June 2 to 5 when the international ballet symposium “Balanchine: Past, Present and Future” takes place at the Hermitage Theatre in St. Petersburg. Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition “A Century of Balanchine” at the Hermitage Museum and a week of Balanchine performances in the city’s fabled Maryinsky Theatre, the event will reportedly be the first time that Russian, British and American scholars and critics hold a joint conference on a ballet subject.

Although Balanchine began his career at the Maryinsky, he left Russia in 1924 and his choreography was officially off-limits to Russian companies until just before the end of the Communist era, after his death. Organized by Pavel Gershenzon, assistant director of the Kirov Ballet, and Lourdes Lopez, a former principal of the New York City Ballet and now the executive director of the George Balanchine Foundation, the symposium will devote a separate session to Balanchine in Russia along with four other sessions on aspects of his career and style. Screenings of Balanchine-related videotapes and master classes for Russian dancers are also scheduled.

From June 2 through 7, the Kirov Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Perm State Ballet (Russia’s three largest classical companies) will dance Balanchine repertory at the Maryinsky, with selections including “Apollo,” “Concerto Barocco,” “Serenade,” “The Four Temperaments” and “Jewels,” as part of St. Petersburg’s annual “White Nights” festival.