Prominent ballet company based in New York City.
It was founded in 1939 as the Ballet Theatre (the name was changed in 1958) by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant to promote works "American in character." Oliver Smith replaced Pleasant as codirector in 1945; Mikhail Baryshnikov served as artistic director from 1980 to 1989 after dancing with the company in the 1970s. New ballets were created for the company by Agnes de Mille , Jerome Robbins , Twyla Tharp , and Antony Tudor ; Michel Fokine revived many of his earlier works for them as well. Principal dancers have included Alicia Alonso , Erik Bruhn , Anton Dolin , and Natalia Makarova .