In 1975, Farrell moved back to the United States, where she collaborated with Balanchine until his death in 1983; she retired from ballet six years later after a hip surgery she had due to arthritis.

[5]: 29–30  In 1960, she was selected to study at choreographer George Balanchine's School of American Ballet with a Ford Foundation scholarship.

[5]: 44  Suzanne, Beverly (the younger of her two older sisters) and their mother moved to The Ansonia apartment-hotel in New York City.

[5]: 54 Initially part of the corps de ballet at NYCB, Farrell soon moved on to dancing featured roles.

Farrell described learning choreography from Balanchine as a collaborative process, saying, "When Mr. B was working on a ballet, something would just spill out of his body; he could rarely duplicate it, so I tried to see precisely what he wanted the first time.

[10] She and her husband later joined the European company Ballet of the 20th Century of the French choreographer Maurice Béjart, based in Brussels.

With this company she danced leading roles, some created for her, for four years, exploring a style of choreography completely different from Balanchine's.

She retired from the New York City Ballet at age 44 on November 26, 1989, after being fired by Martins due to her three-year long absence from the stage, which was caused by her arthritis.

Farrell gave her final bow at State Theater with New York City Ballet co-founder Lincoln Kirstein by her side.

This series provided intermediate-to-advanced level ballet students, ages 13 to 17, an opportunity to study with one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century.

[8] This three weeks' long yearly initiative of intense study grew into a full-fledged program, Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell.

[12] Despite positive reviews and an annual budget ranging from $1-$1.4 million, the center announced in September 2016 that the company would be disbanding at the end of the 2017 performance season.