Allegra Kent taking ballet. After graduating, she joined the New York City Ballet in 1953 at the age of 15, and was promoted to principal in 1957. Many roles in George Balanchine's ballets were created for her, including "Seven Deadly Sins", "Ivesiana" and "Bugaku". She danced the role of Dewdrop in the 1958 Playhouse 90 telecast of Balanchine's version of "The Nutcracker". She performed in such ballets as "Serenade", "Agon" and "Dances at a Gathering". She retired in 1981, becoming a ballet teacher, and in 1997 published an autobiography, "Once a Dancer". In 2012, Kent published her first book for children, "Ballerina
Allegra Byron and wrote in her journal with delight about her close, physical connection with little Allegra, but she was also dealing with emotional and financial pressures from the Shelleys that made it difficult for her to keep the baby with her. The Shelleys were fond of Allegra, but Mary Shelley feared that neighbours would believe Percy Bysshe Shelley had fathered her as the truth about her relationship to Clairmont leaked out. William Godwin, Mary's father and Clairmont's stepfather, had immediately leaped to that conclusion when he learned of Allegra's birth. In an October 1817 letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley