Miami City Ballet Miami City Ballet Miami City Ballet is an American ballet company based in Miami Beach, Florida, led by artistic director Lourdes Lopez. MCB was founded in 1985 by Toby Lerner Ansin, a Miami philanthropist. Ansin and the founding board hired Edward Villella, former New York City Ballet principal dancer to be the founding artistic director. A bulk of the company's repertoire is made up of the work of George Balanchine, though the company also performs works by Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Trey McIntyre, Mark Morris, Jimmy Gamonet, who was the company's founding Resident Choreographer and Ballet Master from 1986 to
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