Balanchine was born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze (Georgian: გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე) in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, son of Georgian opera singer and composer Meliton Balanchivadze, one of the founders of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre and later the culture minister of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, which became independent in 1918 but was later subsumed into the Soviet Union.

The rest of the Georgian side of Balanchine's family comprised largely artists and soldiers.
Little is known of Balanchine's Russian, maternal side.
His mother, Meliton's second wife, Maria Nikolayevna Vasilyeva, is said to be the daughter of Nikolai von Almedingen, a German, who later left Russia and abandoned his family, causing Maria to taker her mothers name.
She was fond of ballet and viewed it as a form of social advancement from the lower reaches of St. Petersburg society.
She was eleven years younger than Meliton and rumored to have been his former housekeeper, although "she had at least some culture in her background" as she could play piano well.
Balanchine was born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze (Georgian: გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე) in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, son of Georgian opera singer and composer Meliton Balanchivadze, one of the founders of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre and later the culture minister of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, which became independent in 1918 but was later subsumed into the Soviet Union.
The rest of the Georgian side of Balanchine's family comprised largely artists and soldiers. Little is known of Balanchine's Russian, maternal side. His mother, Meliton's second wife, Maria Nikolayevna Vasilyeva, is said to be the daughter of Nikolai von Almedingen, a German, who later left Russia and abandoned his family, causing Maria to taker her mothers name. She was fond of ballet and viewed it as a form of social advancement from the lower reaches of St. Petersburg society. She was eleven years younger than Meliton and rumored to have been his former housekeeper, although "she had at least some culture in her background" as she could play piano well.
George Balanchine