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 Fuller Snyder Allegra Fuller Snyder Allegra Fuller Snyder is a dance ethnologist (ethnochoreologist), choreographer, professor and author specializing on dance and culture. Her research focuses on dances among Native American tribes particularly the Yaqui, and on dance among several ethnic groups in Africa and Asia. She is Professor Emerita of dance ethnology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Snyder is the daughter of noted architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller and his wife Anne Hewlett. Snyder pioneered the field of Dance Ethnography, and defines a dance ethnologist as "...one who is concerned with studying the process of dance in culture."