George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker – A Definitive Biography of the Visionary Genius Who Redefined Dance (Eminent Lives, 48)

"Gottlieb captures both the divine and human, offering an elegant, sharp, and sophisticated take on the choreographer's life." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Written by the gifted author, editor, and dance critic Robert Gottlieb, George Balanchine describes the life and art of the celebrated, revolutionary ballet choreographer and founder of The New York City Ballet.

The foremost contemporary choreographer in the history of ballet, George Balanchine extended the art form into radical new paths that came to seem inevitable under his direction. He transformed movement and dance in classical and modern ballet, on the Broadway stage, and in the cinema.

George Balanchine chronicles the life and achievements of this visionary artist from his early, almost accidental career in Russia, where his lifelong collaboration with Igor Stravinsky was forged, to his extraordinary accomplishments in America. Gottlieb, one of the most knowledgeable dance critics in America, offers a superb and loving portrait of a genius who, though married many times to many ballerinas, remained truest to his greatest love, Terpischore, the Greek Muse of dance.

Here is a necessary and singular look at the life of one of the great figures of the 20th Century who was an inspiration to countless fans over the course of his long and storied career.

What shaped the man who reshaped dance for an entire century?_

• The Russian Origins: From his beginnings at the Maryinsky Imperial Theatre to his escape from Bolshevik Russia, discover the forces that forged his revolutionary vision.
• Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes: An inside look at his formative years with the world’s most famous ballet company, where his historic collaboration with Igor Stravinsky began.
• The American Visionary: The story of his journey to America and the founding of the legendary New York City Ballet, changing the face of dance in his new home.
• Beyond the Stage: A sensitive portrait of the private man, his many ballerina wives, and his unwavering dedication to his muse, Terpsichore.

The former editor in chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and The New Yorker, Robert Gottlieb was on the board of directors of the New York City Ballet for many years. He writes literary criticism for the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, and The New Yorker, and is the dance critic for the New York Observer.