Ballet Society is a non-profit educational institution founded in 1946 by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine.
[2] The first performance took place on November 20, 1946 at the Central High School of Needle Trades in New York City.
In its first two decades it received $200,000 in grants to research and expand the reach of ballet in the United States.
It also commissioned and presented choreography by George Balanchine, Todd Bolender, Merce Cunningham, Lew Christensen, Francisco Moncion, and William Dollar.
In 1949, Ballet Society received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for $2,500 for the completion of a book, published as The Classic Ballet: Basic Technique and Terminology, with a text by Muriel Stuart, illustrations by Carlus Dyer, and a foreword by George Balanchine.
Two teams of NYCB dancers, headed by Melissa Hayden and Edward Villella, delivered these lectures.