New York City Ballet

The New York City Ballet is the brainchild of Lincoln Kirstein, who envisioned an American Ballet of young native dancers, trained and schooled to perform new, modern repertory. The company now performs 23 weeks of the year under the direction of Peter Martins. For further information see http://www.nycballet.com.

The New York City Ballet (NYCB), one of the leading dance companies in the world, was the brainchild of Lincoln Kirstein. Kirstein recruited the choreographer George Balanchine to develop a ballet company in the United States.

With Kirstein's assistance, Balanchine came to New York in 1933 and quickly established the School of American Ballet (SAB), which trained a new generation of dancers to suit his ideals and specifications. After a few false starts, the New York City Ballet was founded as a company in 1948. Balanchine invited the American dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins to join the company as a performer and to help him in creating an original repertory of contemporary works, steeped in the tradition of the classical ballet. NYCB was resident ballet company at New York's City Center for Music and Drama until 1964 when it moved to the specially constructed New York State Theater. Former principal dancer, Peter Martins, involved in the running of NYCB since the death of Balanchine in 1983, became the sole Ballet Master in Chief in 1990.