Balanchine's 1983 will split the rights to about 100 ballets among a handful of friends, and the heirs formed a Trust

George Balanchine died on 30 April 1983, aged 79, of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His longtime assistant Barbara Horgan had urged him to write a will so that rights to his ballets would not pass to a brother in the Soviet Union. He left rights to about 100 ballets to a handful of friends. One account names 14 heirs^†. Dancer Karin von Aroldingen received six ballets outright: Serenade, Liebeslieder Walzer, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Une Porte et Un Soupir, Vienna Waltzes and Kammermusik No. 2. Another account says she shared royalties on 37 more with Horgan^†. Horgan became executor. The heirs entered their rights in the George Balanchine Trust, founded in 1987 with von Aroldingen and Horgan as trustees. The Trust licenses stagings, and more than 800 productions have been staged since his death, overseen by about 15 of his former dancers. Trustee Susan Gluck later petitioned for an accounting of the Trust's finances and accused Horgan of consolidating power^†. Balanchine is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor.