[4] Its studios were located at 2801 Connecticut Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C.[5] The company debuted on January 3, 1962, at the George Washington University Lisner Auditorium, changed residency upon the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1972, and officially ended on June 13, 1974.
Franklin and Riddell also created the National Ballet School with an enrollment of 250 girls and boys with class size limited to 15 students.
[7] Principal dancers included Sonia Arova, Alida Belair,[8] Marilyn Burr, Eugene Collins, Jean-Paul Comelin,[9] Ivan Dragadze, Roderick Drew, Anita Dyche,[10] Stevan Grebel (1965–1971),[11] Daniel Franck, Jacqueline Hepner,[12] Claudine Kamoun, Desmond Kelly, Christine Knoblauch, Michelle Lees, Roni Mahler,[13] Carmen Mathe, Kevin McKenzie,[14][15] Yvonne Meyer, Ivan Nagy,[16] Kirk Peterson,[17] Dennis Poole, Stuart Sebastion, Andrea Vodehnal.
[18][19][20] Soloists included James Capp, Roy Gean,[21] Helen Heineman, Judith Helman, Hiller Huhn, Linda Kintz,[22] James Maher, Lucy Maybury, Patricia Mideke, Jane Miller, Judith Reese, Judy Rhodes, Judith Rigler, Ilona Russell, Thomas Russell,[23] Christine Spizzo, Frederic Strobel, James Thompson, Franklin Yezer.
Corps de Ballet included Mariana Alvarez, Charlotte Belcher, Roger Bigelow, Phyllis Blake, Karen Brown, Nancy Davis,[24] Evelyn Ebel, Susan Frazer, Susan Gore, Katherine Laqueur, Maxine Mahon, Sheryl McKechnie, Andrea Price, Betty Risen, Susan Smith, Patricia Sorrell, Llanchie Stevenson, and James Thompson.
The first graduates of the National Ballet School to be accepted into the company were Sheryl McKechnie, Judy Rhodes and Betty Risen.