Ballet Arts Center for Dance

Theater Description

The history of Ballet Arts is a reflection of the history and success of dance in America. Founded in 1937, Ballet Arts is the longest-established, continuously-operating dance school in New York City history.

For over 85 years, our studio has provided a home for some of the finest teachers in America, where the creation and rehearsal of many famous ballets took place and where the hard work of students propelled some to great fame in the dance world. Ballet Arts has hosted some of the legendary dancers and choreographers of the 20th century.

From our time at Studio 61 in Carnegie Hall, Ballet Arts school played host to such early dance pioneers as The Isadora Duncan Dancers, Ted Shawn, Ruth St. Denis, and Yeichi Nimura. Later, when classical ballet captured the American imagination, Ballet Arts was foremost in providing teaching and rehearsal space to such legendary figures as Michael Mordkin and Lucia Chase (who would shortly found a company called Ballet Theatre), Agnes DeMille, Jerome Robbins and George Balanchine.

After WWII, Ballet Arts was a mecca for some of the greatest teachers in the country: Alexander Danilova, Margaret Craske, Vladimir Dokoudovsky, Rosella Hightower, Eugene Loring, Vera Nemtchinova, Bronislava Nijinska, Nina Stroganova, and Anthony Tudor.

Since that time, the school has attracted an ever-wider range of teachers in all disciplines, but it is in the field of ballet that Ballet Arts has shown its leadership: Willy Burmann, Robert Blankshine, Nanette Glushak, Woytek Lowsky and Bo Spasoff, among many others. They provided an important transition to the modern era.

With our faculty of outstanding achievement, Ballet Arts is among the finest schools in the United States and continues to be a center for creative learning in the field of dance.