Sarah Crompton

Lord of the dance: the genius of George Balanchine 

Balanchine described himself as ‘a cloud in trousers’ – and Jennifer Homans perfectly captures the earthly man and his ethereal gift

Balanchine with Suzanne Farrell – wearing Van Cleef and Arpels jewellery – rehearsing for New York City Ballet’s production of Jewels, 1976 [Bridgeman Images]

Sex and dance were the twin themes of George Balanchine’s life. ‘I am a cloud in trousers,’ he said, using a phrase borrowed from the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Jennifer Homans quotes the sentence early in her biography of the man who co-founded New York City Ballet:

What this suggested, and it was a central theme of his life, was that he felt like a man with two bodies and he lived in them both simultaneously, with at times heartbreaking personal consequences.

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