Ballet Arizona celebrates choreographer George Balanchine’s centennial year with special enthusiasm because Ib Andersen, the company’s artistic director, danced and studied with the ballet master.

“The most important lesson I learned with him as a dancer was how to express almost everything through your body,” Andersen says, taking a break from rehearsal. “And the most important thing I learned from him as a choreographer was how to use music.”

Andersen says part of Balanchine’s genius came from the fact that he was a trained musician himself, which gave him a special understanding of musical scores and their underlying rhythms.

“When Balanchine choreographed, the music became greater than it was originally,” he says.

Balanchine was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1904. The son of a composer, he studied piano and music theory at the same time he studied dance. He began to choreograph while still in his teens and after forming his own ballet company, moved to London, where he was asked by impresario Serge Diaghilev to serve as ballet master for Ballets Russes. In 1933, he came to the U.S. and served as ballet master of the New York City Ballet until his death in 1983.

He left behind an enormous legacy.

“Balanchine’s scope was astounding,” Andersen says. “He choreographed more than 400 ballets, and every one of them is different. Of those ballets, 50 to 70 are considered masterpieces. Who else can match that record?”

Ballet Arizona will be performing six of Balanchine’s best-known ballets, three each on different days.

But Sunday will be a particularly special day in the history of Ballet Arizona because it features the farewell concert of Yen-Li Chen-Zhang, the company’s prima ballerina. In addition to other works, she will dance her signature piece, the White Swan, from “Swan Lake.”

“There’s going to be an awful lot of dancing that weekend,” says Ib Andersen, artistic director of Ballet Arizona. “I think everyone will be very, very happy.”