[2] His maternal aunt and uncle, Leif and Elna Ornberg, members of the Royal Danish Ballet, started teaching him ballroom combinations when he was five years of age; when he applied to ballet school, however, he was the subject of discrimination because his aunt and uncle had been Nazi sympathizers.

[3] Martins left Denmark in 1970 and became a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet (NYCB), though he had been performing as a guest artist since 1967.

[5][6] Martins retired from dancing in 1983, becoming Co-Ballet Master-In-Chief alongside Jerome Robbins,[7] and assumed the job of sole Balletmaster-in-Chief in 1990.

[8] Martins also served as the artistic director and chairman of faculty of the School of American Ballet, the training division of the NYCB and the venue through which it receives most of its dancers.

His first piece was Calcium Light Night, set to music by Charles Ives, which premiered in 1977 and received positive reviews.

His more recent pieces include Octet, Friandises, Stabat Mater and the full-length ballets The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Romeo + Juliet.

[14] One of his accusers, Wilhelmina Frankfurt, a former New York City Ballet ballerina and later a dance educator, said: "Am I a victim of Martins abuse?

1984 Nominee Primetime Emmy Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for "Great Performances: Dance in America" For episode "Choreographer's Notebook: Stravinsky Piano Ballets by Peter Martins".

His exercise regimen, titled NYCB Workout and designed with the New York Sports Club, first appeared in book form in 1997, with a DVD and a sequel produced later.

[20] Martins had a long-term romantic relationship with Heather Watts during her career as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.

[21] In ballerina Gelsey Kirkland's book Dancing on My Grave (1986), she describes Martins dragging Watts up and down a flight of stairs.

In July 1992, Martins was arrested and held for five hours after his 28-year-old wife of seven months, New York City Ballet principal ballerina Darci Kistler, phoned the police for help.

His wife filed an affidavit accusing him of assaulting her, pushing and slapping her, and cutting and bruising her arms and legs and continuing to hit her after she fell under his attack.

[27] Peter Wolff, a member of the school’s board of directors, said that the assault charge was "a personal matter", would not affect Martins’ career, and that it had "nothing to do with his competency or his support in the ballet community.

[28] In December 2017, Martins was arrested after a three-car crash and charged with drunk driving, refusal to take a breath test, and backing unsafely.