New York City Ballet, one of the foremost American dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine as the Ballet Society in 1946. In 1948 the company took its present name and began regular performances at the New York City Center. It moved to the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 1964. Under Balanchine's direction the company developed a distinctly American style of dancing, combining Italian, French, and Russian traditions with an austere emotional control and flair for musicality. The company's works have ranged from the intensely dramatic Age of Anxiety (1950) and the highly comic Souvenirs (1955) to the formal abstractions of Agon (1958) and the lavish theatricality of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962). Although Balanchine was closely identified with the company's development, other outstanding choreographers, including Jerome Robbins, have also created works for it. Its roster of exceptional performers has included Maria Tallchief, Melissa Hayden, André Eglevsky, Todd Bolender, Suzanne Farrell, Edward Villella, and Jacques d'Amboise. The company has toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad. Balanchine, who was involved with the company up until his death in 1983, was succeeded by Peter Martins and (until 1990) Jerome Robbins, who were named co-ballet masters in chief.

New York City: see New York, city.

Preeminent U.S. ballet company. The company is descended from the American Ballet, which was founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein in 1935 and revived as the Ballet Society in 1946; it assumed its current name in 1948. Under Balanchine's artistic direction, the company became the leading U.S. ballet troupe, combining European classical ballet with American characterization and innovation and exerting enormous influence on American dance. It moved to its permanent home, the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, in 1964. Later artistic directors Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins contributed numerous works to its repertoire. Its leading dancers have included Maria Tallchief, Edward Villella, Jacques d'Amboise, and Suzanne Farrell.

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City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and an important seaport, it consists of five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The site of a Dutch trading post on Manhattan Island, it was colonized as New Amsterdam by Dutch director general Peter Minuit, who bought it from the Indians in 1626. The colony surrendered to the British in 1664 and was renamed New York. It was the capital of the state (1784–97) and of the U.S. (1789–90). The economy grew after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, and the city expanded rapidly after the American Civil War, developing transportation and communications systems. In 1898 the five boroughs were merged into a single city. Long a magnet for immigrants to the U.S., it is a centre of world trade and finance, media, art, entertainment, and fashion. Because of its prominence and its central role in world commerce, the city was a target for acts of terrorism. In September 2001, hijackers intentionally flew airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, destroying them and destroying or damaging several adjacent buildings; the attacks killed some 2,800 people. See September 11 attacks.

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