History
The School of American Ballet was founded in 1934 with 32 pupils by Lincoln Kirstein. It was originally situated in 637 Madison Avenue, New York City. Its original staff included, but was not limited to, Pierre Vladimiroff, American ballet pioneer Dorothy Littlefield, and Muriel Stuart, who had trained and danced with the legendary Anna Pavlova.Around this time, Kirstein writes: “The School of American Ballet has been founded for one purpose only: To provide dancers as well trained as any other technician, whether it be surgeon, architect, or musician.”
Later in that year, Georgi Balanchine started choreographing a ballet using students from the school. The ballet, Serenade, became the School's signature dance and is still performed today. When Balanchine started a ballet company, he incorporated the school with it. Because of this and his unique style, Balanchine's work and specific tempo use are still evident in the School of American Ballet today.
Now
The School of American Ballet has always been closely associated with the New York City Ballet and now the company has many of the same characteristics including the strong Balanchine style. It also has the strong tradition of taking past dancers from New York City Ballet as dance teachers in the School of American Ballet. In exchange the NYCB takes children from SAB to be part in their shows, whether in a small acting role or as the lead. The role of Clara in The Nutcracker is often a student.
They have 450 students aged 6 to 18 who take part in their ten month term, 64 of which are boarders at the school . THe students are mainly form the Metropolian New York area but SAB also has students from over 30 US states and 9 foreign countries.
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