Ballet Society

Ballet Society is a non-profit educational institution founded in 1946 by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. At its founding, Balanchine was the Artistic Director and Kirstein served as the Secretary. The president of Ballet Society is Nancy Lassalle, an original Board member of both the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet, currently Emerita.

The first performance took place on November 20, 1946 at the Central High School of Needle Trades in New York City. In its first season, it opened with The Four Temperaments and the Spellbound Child.

Ballet Society's purpose was to develop an historical and pedagogical foundation for the art of ballet and dance. In its first two decades it received $200,000 in grants to research and expand the reach of ballet in the United States. With these funds Ballet Society published programs and held seminars and workshops with dance scholars, artists and dance teachers. It also commissioned and presented choreography by George Balanchine, Todd Bolender, Merce Cunningham, Lew Christensen, Francisco Moncion, and William Dollar.

Balanchine and Kirstein opened the School of American Ballet in 1934 before starting any of the ballet companies they went on to found over the years. Prior to and including 1946, when they began Ballet Society, Balanchine was able to utilize the dancers from his school for his ballets.

On April 28, 1948 Orpheus premiered at City Center, prompting Morton Baum, Chairman of the Finance Committee of City Center of Music & Drama, to invite Balanchine and Kirstein to establish a resident company, renamed the New York City Ballet. Once the dance company was given a stable home at New York City Center, Ballet Society continued to operate separately as a non-profit organization in the service of the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet, publishing dance books and developing and funding projects related to the sustenance and encouragement of dance in the United States, while continuing to commission new ballets.

In 1949, Ballet Society received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for $2500 for the completion of a book, published as The Classic Ballet: Basic Technique and Terminology, with a text by Muriel Stuart, illustrations by Carlus Dyer, and a foreword by George Balanchine. Lincoln Kirstin is credited with the historical development. This book remains in print today.

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