New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet, prestigious American ballet company, based at the New York State Theater in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. Officially founded in 1948 by American writer and dance enthusiast Lincoln Kirstein and choreographer George Balanchine, the company has its origins in a series of ventures undertaken by the co-founders. In 1933 Kirstein and Balanchine opened the School of American Ballet, now the official school of the New York City Ballet. Subsequently they were involved in establishing a series of acclaimed but short-lived companies before co-founding the Ballet Society in 1946. In 1948 the company, under the new name of New York City Ballet, became the resident ballet company of the New York City Center for Music and Drama. Kirstein assumed the role of General Director and Balanchine became artistic director.

In the 1950s the New York City Ballet began touring and gained worldwide renown. The innovative, Neo-Classical ballets that Balanchine created for the company, especially his non-narrative pieces, earned high praise. These works include Agon (1957), performed to music written for the piece by Russian-American composer Igor Stravinsky; Don Quixote (1965); Jewels (1967); and Vienna Waltzes (1977). Jerome Robbins, the associate artistic director of the organization from 1949 to 1959 and a ballet master from 1969 to 1983, also received wide acclaim for his imaginative and theatrical choreography in pieces such as The Cage (1951); Watermill (1972), which drew on Japanese music and Noh theatre; and Glass Pieces (1983), performed to music by minimalist composer Philip Glass. In 1964 the New York City Ballet moved to facilities in the Lincoln Center, and during the 1970s the company grew to include more than 100 dancers, becoming the largest dance organization in the United States. After Balanchine’s death in 1983, Robbins and dancer and choreographer Peter Martins assumed artistic direction of the company. Robbins retired from the position in 1990, while Martins continued as the sole artistic director.

The company has a large repertoire of works—more than 100 pieces—choreographed chiefly by Balanchine, Robbins, and Martins. Other choreographers who created ballets for the company include Sir Frederick Ashton, William Dollar, Antony Tudor, Todd Bolender, Jacques d’Amboise, John Clifford, John Taras, and William Forsythe. The company’s most celebrated principal dancers have included Maria Tallchief, Tanaquil LeClercq, Diana Adams, Allegra Kent, Patricia McBride, Violette Verdy, Suzanne Farrell, Arthur Mitchell, Gelsey Kirkland, Edward Villella, d’Amboise, André Eglevsky, and Martins.