SOURCE NOTES cite rare published and archival information--and especially information obtained from individuals--that clarifies or corrects programs or constructs records for works for which programs do not exist or have not been located. Programs and well-known or easily accessible publications are not given in SOURCE NOTES, as they should be understood to have been the starting point for all of the research.

       The Catalogue is augmented by additional sections relating to Balanchine’s choreographic output. The schematic Chronology of Life and Works is designed to provide the user with an overview and context of works year by year, giving the names of composers as well as the geographical location and Balanchine’s company associations, and noting important events related to the progress of his undertakings. Headings, organized chronologically, reflect his principal locations, associations, and milieu: 1920-1924, Russia; 1925-1929, Europe with Diaghilev; 1930-1933, Europe after Diaghilev; 1934-1945, the United States and early companies; 1946-1948, Ballet Society; 1948-1964, New York City Ballet--City Center; 1964-1982, New York City Ballet--New York State Theater.

       Itineraries Undertaken by Balanchine’s American Companies During his Lifetime lists seasons and tours in the United States and abroad by his American companies from 1934 to 1983. While his first travels after leaving the Soviet Union, and then with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and after, are partially indicated in the Chronology, these earlier and less well known periods of his career remain open to further study.

       Festivals Directed by Balanchine lists the works of each performance (including works by choreographers other than Balanchine) for five principal festivals conceived by him and produced under his direction: the Stravinsky Festival, 1937; the Stravinsky Festival, 1972; the Ravel Festival, 1976; the Tschaikovsky Festival, 1981; and the Stravinsky Centennial Celebration, 1982.

       Research Resources is an annotated list of the principal repositories holding Balanchine material in various parts of the world. Virtually all of these institutions have Web sites, providing the scholar and the general public with broad access to Balanchine collections.

       Roles Performed by Balanchine is a preliminary listing of roles he danced from his student days until his death. This aspect of his professional life has yet to be comprehensively researched.

       The annotated Bibliography includes all writings known to have been published by Balanchine, arranged chronologically, and a selection of books relating to him, arranged alphabetically. For the general reader, the following titles can be described as principal reference works: Balanchine’s Complete Stories of the Great Ballets (with Francis Mason; Doubleday, 1977; several subsequent editions); The New York City Ballet, by Anatole Chujoy (Knopf, 1953); George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker, by Robert Gottlieb (HarperCollins, 2004); Thirty Years: Lincoln Kirstein’s The New York City Ballet (Knopf, 1978); I Remember Balanchine, complied by Francis Mason (Doubleday, 1991); Repertory in Review: Forty Years of the New York City Ballet, by Nancy Reynolds (Dial, 1977); and Balanchine: A Biography, by Bernard Taper (Macmillan, 1974; with new epilogue, University of California Press, 1996).

       The Videography lists tapes and DVDs available commercially, with their distributors and dates of first issue. Since the original publication of the catalogue in 1983, the growth of Balanchine’s videography--albeit still small in comparison with his enormous output--together with the proliferation of entries in the Bibliography, Television, and Stagings sections, attests the continuing relevance of the Balanchine repertory.

(adapted from the 1983 Introduction by Leslie George Katz, Nancy Lassalle, and Harvey Simmonds)

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