It was founded as North Carolina Dance Theatre in Winston-Salem by Robert Lindgren, who was then Dean of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, in 1970.

It currently has 26 dancers and is the parent company of the Charlotte Ballet Academy.

Charlotte Ballet has performed an extensive repertoire over the years.

With two of the company's leaders, Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux having extensive ties to George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins and major contemporary dance choreographer Dwight Rhoden being the choreographer-in-residence, Charlotte Ballet has become a major hub for neoclassical and contemporary work.

Charlotte Ballet is the parent company to the Charlotte Ballet Academy, formerly the North Carolina Dance Theatre School of Dance.