12 Facts About Ballet Society

Ballet Society is a non-profit educational institution founded in 1946 by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine.

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.

Ballet Society began as a ballet company, the fourth ballet established by Balanchine and Kirstein in the United States.

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.

Ballet Society's purpose has been to develop an historical and pedagogical foundation for the art of ballet and dance.

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Ballet Society has worked since 2001 with Eakins Press Foundation to publish works of dance scholarship or that aid dance scholarship.

In 1949, Ballet Society received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for $2,500 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.

In 1960, Ballet Society raised funds to implement a new program at the New York City Ballet.

In 1961, Ballet Society sponsored a Teachers Seminar, based on the findings of the Ford Foundation grant survey, for the purpose of upholding the highest standard of excellence in the quality of teaching ballet across the country.

In 1964, Ballet Society received a $5000 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to conduct lecture-demonstrations in high schools across New York City.

In 1986, Ballet Society sponsored travel for 21 New York City Ballet dancers to attend the International Ballet Festival of Nervi in Italy, where they performed works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins.

In 2014, Ballet Society produced an interactive app on the Apple platform, to foster knowledge of ballet's beginnings, history and evolution as told through its relationship with art, history and classicism.