Ballet Society 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
New York Theatre Ballet teacher Margaret Craske was ballet mistress for New York Theatre Ballet from its foundation until late in her life. Craske was succeeded by Sallie Wilson, a student of hers, who was ballet mistress until 2008. Wilson staged works by Antony Tudor for New York Theatre Ballet and also choreographed her own pieces. New York Theatre Ballet runs LIFT, a community program to give underprivileged children the chance to learn to dance. Steven Melendez, a former Project LIFT student, is the current director of the project. In the summer of 2013 New York Theatre Ballet began a fight against eviction from