The George Balanchine Foundation has announced the launch of its official YouTube channel, launching with content from its Video Archives Collection. The Foundation is adamant that it is important to share the late choreographer’s work, meaning the Foundation will begin by posting nearly 50 video interviews from the Collection. As digital media continues to expand, the general public will have unprecedented access to this valuable source.
As a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1983, the mission of the Foundation is to create programmes that educate the public, and further Balanchine’s work and aesthetic in order to continue his high standards of excellence in dance. Featured in the films are dancers Balanchine created for, or taught his ballets to, who worked to coach today’s dancers in these particular roles.
The George Balanchine Foundation’s Video Archive Collection was designed to document Balanchine’s work as closely as possible, in detailing his original intent for his work as he choreographed it. The recorded coaching sessions provide invaluable insights into Balanchine’s creative process, in addition to including an interview of the original interpreter with a dance historian or critic at the end of each coaching session. The interviews serve to further develop Balanchine’s work and the interviews will be accessible through the YouTube channel too.
Nancy Reynolds, dance historian and writer – and the Foundation’s director of research – continues to direct the programme following her initiation of this, 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. Boos was a former dancer with the New York City Ballet.
Complete versions of the George Balanchine Video Archives files – which include entire coaching sessions – are available through public libraries and universities, as a result of the Foundation’s partnership with Alexander Street Press.