8, 9 March 2006. In Apollo, Arlequinade and Who Cares?, choreography by George Balanchine. By the time of his death on 30 April 1983, George Balanchine had created over 400 works and was recognized as a 20th-century master alongside Picasso and Stravinsky. The life and the story of the man, born Georg Melitonovitch Balanchivadze in St Petersburg, Russia in 1904 is now a legend, as is the legacy he left as artistic director and primary choreographer of the New York City Ballet. He found his own style with Apollon musagte in 1928, becoming one of the dominant forces of neoclassicism. He was the master of the plot-less ballet, while most of his action ballets have been controversial. But it was through him that America established a direct and creative link with European ballet tradition.