Balanchine's beginnings

In dance, Kasyan Goleizovsky--a name little known in the West--scandalized and inspired Russian balletomanes of the twenties. Like Fokine, he believed that classical ballet had degenerated into a superficial entertainment. He espoused a pure dance art eschewing stereotyped steps; his troupe danced barefoot and scantily clad.

Balanchivadze was galvanized by Goleizovsky's heresies. Two years after graduating in 1921, he created Evenings of the Young Ballet, of which the first was titled "The Evolution of Ballet: From Petipa through Fokine to Balanchivadze." Balanchivadze's contributions, set to Ravel and Chopin, and to his own Extase, created a sensation. Subsequent Evenings ranged from classical adagios to fox-trots. Balanchivadze's vocabulary included elements of acrobatics, popular dance, and cabaret. This intermingling of tradition and innovation fed the American dance artist to come. The turbulent Petrograd years equally shaped Balanchivadze the man: his resourcefulness, adaptability, self-sufficiency. And he acquired--unless it was always there--a fatalistic equanimity under pressure that would become one of his most pronounced and unfathomable personal attributes.

Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts by Joseph Horowitz. 2008. Page 25.