Ballet Society
non-profit organization supporting dance in the United States, originally founded as a ballet company
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.
Early history
Ballet Society began as a ballet company, the fourth ballet established by Balanchine and Kirstein in the United States. Its performances were for a subscription audience. 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.
New York City Ballet and change of mission
On April 28, 1948 Orpheus, presented by Ballet Society while it was still a ballet company, premiered at City Center. This prompted Morton Baum, Chairman of the Finance Committee of City Center of Music & Drama, to invite Balanchine and Kirstein to establish a resident company, renamed the New York City Ballet. Once the dance company was given a stable home at New York City Center, Ballet Society continued to operate separately as a non-profit organization in the service of the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet, publishing dance books and developing and funding projects related to the sustenance and encouragement of dance in the United States, while continuing to commission new ballets.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ballet Society” is non-profit organization supporting dance in the United States, originally founded as a ballet company. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ballet, Society and non-profit, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “non-profit organization supporting dance in the United States, originally founded as a ballet company” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16935389. VIAF identifies the subject as 154815504. The Library of Congress control number is n84005438. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946 and 1948.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ballet Society”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ballet Society primary sources, Ballet Society archive and Ballet research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ballet Society”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ballet Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.