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| | American Masters . George Balanchine | PBS |
 | | Balanchine’s first ballet in this country was "Serenade," set to music by Tchaikovsky, which was premiered outdoors on the estate of a friend near White Plains, New York, as a workshop performance by students of the school. |
 | | With a company initially strapped for cash, Balanchine eschewed elaborate costumes and sets and presented his dancers in practice clothes, an innovation he continued to use for selected ballets long after money was no longer an issue. |
 | | For those, however, who realized that Balanchine had dreamed of creating for America what the Maryinsky had been for Russia, the development was perfectly logical, and ballets such as "Don Quixote," "Union Jack," "Jewels," and "Vienna Waltzes" soon followed. |
| www.pbs.org /wnet/americanmasters/database/balanchine_g.html (508 words) |
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