Influential twentieth-century Dancer, Choreographer, and ballet master. He was one of the founders of both the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet.
At the age of nine, he began attending the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, Russia. He later studied music at the Petrograd Conservatory.
In the mid 1950s, he choreographed an updated version of the famous Nutcracker ballet.
He was married and divorced several times. All of his marriages -- to Opera Ginny, Alexandra Danilova, Tamara Geva, Vera Zorina, Maria Tallchief, and Tanaquil LeClercq -- were to fellow Dancers.
He frequently choreographed dances set to the music of Igor Stravinsky.
