BWW Reviews: BALANCHINE AND THE LOST MUSE: REVOLUTION AND THE MAKING OF A CHOREOGRAPHER by ELIZABETH KENDALLAugust 6, 2013George Balanchine (1904-1983) is considered the greatest choreographer of the 20th century, his transforming genius in dance often compared to that of Mozart and Stravinsky in music and Picasso and Cezanne in art. Born Georgi Balanchivadze in Czarist Russia, he fled the country of his birth for the West in 1924. After working with Diaghilev's fabled Ballets Russes, he came to the United States in 1933, and with Lincoln Kirstein founded the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet. Through his many works Balanchine crafted an American style of neoclassical ballet that changed the world of dance.