New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.
The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca, the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 by artistic director Hope Muir. Renowned for its diverse repertoire, the company performs traditional full-length classics, embraces contemporary work and encourages the creation of new ballets, as well as the development of Canadian dancers and choreographers.
Angel Corella López is a Spanish former principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre and guest artist with The Royal Ballet, Kirov Ballet, New York City Ballet, La Scala and the Australian Ballet among many others. Since the 2014/2015 season, he has been the Artistic Director of Philadelphia Ballet.
The Boston Ballet is an American professional classical ballet company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1963 by E. Virginia Williams and Sydney Leonard, and was the first professional repertory ballet company in New England. It has been led by Violette Verdy (1980–1984), Bruce Marks (1985–1997), and Anna-Marie Holmes (1997–2000). Mikko Nissinen was appointed artistic director in September 2001.
Joaquín De Luz is a Spanish ballet dancer. He was formerly with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), and a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet (NYCB). He is currently director of Spanish National Dance Company.
Greta Hodgkinson O.Ont is an American-Canadian ballet dancer. She was a Principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada until she stepped down in 2020. She continues to perform freelance and is Artist-in-Residence of the National Ballet.
Christopher d'Amboise is an American danseur, choreographer, writer, and theatre director.
Peter Boal is artistic director of Pacific Northwest Ballet and director of its affiliated school in Seattle, Washington. He was born in Bedford, New York, in 1965 and began studies at the School of American Ballet (SAB) at age nine.
Wendy Whelan is an American ballet dancer. She was principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and performed with the company for 30 years, and toured in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Whelan has also been an influential guest artist with Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company. In 2019, Whelan was named Associate Artistic Director of New York City Ballet.
Miami City Ballet is an American ballet company based in Miami Beach, Florida, led by artistic director Lourdes Lopez.
Jonathan Stafford is an American ballet dancer and artistic director. He danced with the New York City Ballet (NYCB) as a principal dancer until his retirement in 2014, then he served as a ballet master. He became the artistic director of NYCB in 2019.
Ballet Arizona is a professional ballet company in Phoenix, Arizona directed by Ib Andersen. The company was created in 1986 by a merger of three smaller Arizonan dance companies that were struggling to survive. Today, the company of thirty-one dancers occupies a prominent place in American ballet. The company is also integrated into the School of Ballet Arizona.
Colorado Ballet encompasses a 31-member professional performing ballet company, a studio company for advanced dance students, an academy, and an education and outreach department. Based in downtown Denver, Colorado, Colorado Ballet serves more than 125,000 patrons each year.
The Kansas City Ballet (KCB) is a professional ballet company based in Kansas City, Missouri. The company was founded in 1957 by Russian expatriate Tatiana Dokoudovska. The KCB presents five major performances each season to include an annual production of The Nutcracker. The KCB, its school, and its staff are all housed in, operate from, and rehearse at the Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity, a renovated, seven-studio, office, and rehearsal facility in Kansas City, Missouri, that opened in August 2011. The company performs at and is the resident ballet company at the nearby Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, a performance venue in downtown Kansas City that opened in September 2011.
Christopher Stowell is an American ballet dancer and choreographer. He is currently the associate artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada. He was previously the artistic director of the Oregon Ballet Theatre. Before that, he danced professionally with the San Francisco Ballet for sixteen years.
Nevada Ballet Theatre (NBT) is a regional ballet company located in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It is the Resident Ballet Company of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and is one of the largest performing arts organizations in the state. Its professional company of dancers possesses a versatile repertoire ranging from well-known story ballets such as The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake to works by George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Val Caniparoli, James Canfield, Thaddeus Davis and many more. The organization also operates an Academy out of its main facility in Summerlin, as well as an education & outreach program, Future Dance, that reaches over 16,000 students each year in schools throughout Southern Nevada.
Julie Diana Hench is an American ballet dancer, teacher, writer and arts administrator. She joined the San Francisco Ballet in 1993, and was promoted to principal dancer in 2000. In 2004, she joined the Pennsylvania Ballet, where she remained until her retirement from performing in 2014, though she remained in the company for another year as a ballet master. In 2015, she became the executive director at Juneau Dance Theatre. In 2017, she was named executive director of the American Repertory Ballet and Princeton Ballet School. She has written for various dance publications.
Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan is a Mexican-American ballet dancer who is currently a principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.
Ashley Ellis is an American ballet dancer. She joined the American Ballet Theatre in 2002. She danced at Corella Ballet from 2007 to 2010 and then Sarasota Ballet for a year. In 2011, she joined the Boston Ballet, and was promoted to principal dancer in 2013. Ellis retired from performing in 2021.
