Peter Martins (born 27 October 1946) is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and with the New York City Ballet, where he joined George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and John Taras as balletmaster in 1981. He retired from dancing in 1983, having achieved the rank of danseur noble, becoming Co-Ballet Master-In-Chief with Robbins. From 1990 until January 2018, he was solely responsible for artistic leadership of City Ballet. Early life Martins was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark. His parents were Børge Martins, an engineer, and Tove Christa Ornberg, a pianist. His maternal aunt and uncle, Leif and Elna Ornberg, members of the Royal Danish Ballet, started teaching him ballroom combinations when he was five years of age; when he applied to ballet school, however, he was the subject of discrimination because his aunt and uncle had been Nazi sympathizers. It was his older sisters who originally tried out for the Royal Ballet of Denmark at the age of seven. When they did, he was sitting in the waiting room reading a Donald Duck comic book. They were denied admittance. Then Peter was asked to "point his foot". He did especially well and was admitted. Career Martins began his ballet training in 1953 with the Royal Danish Ballet. He joined the corps de ballet in 1965, and was promoted to soloist in 1967. Martins left Denmark in 1970 and became a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet (NYCB), though he had been performing as a guest artist since 1967. Martins danced a wide variety of roles, but is most known for the titular role in Apollo and the Cavalier in Balanchine's Nutcracker. In 1978, he was made the subject of the documentary, Peter Martins: A Dancer. He danced frequently with Suzanne Farrell. However, he terminated her employment with the NYCB in 1993; she went on to found her own company, which disbanded in 2017. Martins retired from dancing in 1983, becoming Co-Ballet Master-In-Chief alongside Jerome Robbins, and assumed the job of sole Balletmaster-in-Chief in 1990. Martins was Balanchine's personal choice of successor. However, early in his career as balletmaster, Martins faced criticism for perceived deviations from Balanchine's style. Martins also served as the artistic director and chairman of faculty of the School of American Ballet, the training division of the NYCB and the venue through which it receives most