She danced with the New York City Ballet between 1963 and 1983, then staged and coached works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins for both NYCB and other companies.
In 1970, she performed her first lead role, the Strip Tease girl in George Balanchine's Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,[1] for which the New York Times commented that she "danced with an unabashed enthusiasm.
"[2] She became a soloist in 1972, and created roles in Balanchine's Who Cares?, Coppélia, Le tombeau de Couperin and Chaconne, and Jerome Robbins's The Goldberg Variations and Requiem Canticles.
[1] In 1978, she danced another role in The Goldberg Variations, and Jennifer Dunning of the New York Times commented, "Hendl filled the stage with luxuriously stretched arabesques and the delicate detail of her head and arm work.
[1] Hendl worked with choreographer Peter Martins in the 1970s, and in 1979, she assisted Balanchine and Robbins in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme for the New York City Opera, which starred Rudolf Nureyev.