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
Kansas City Ballet in 1967, it performed a program at the Kansas City Music Hall featuring three guest choreographers. In 1968, the company moved to Treadway Hall on the University of Missouri–Kansas City Campus. In April 1968, choreographer Zachary Solov began a multi-year collaboration with the KCB, coming to Kansas City to choreograph and stage two world premiere ballets with the KCB: an abstract piece set to Mozart's Symphony No. 40 and a theater ballet based on Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns. The program also included performances by New York City Ballet guest artists Edward Villella and Patricia McBride. For the opening