Margaret "Maggie" Black (March 31, 1930 – May 11, 2015) was a ballet teacher who taught in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s, she coached dancers such as which American ballerina, who joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age fifteen, at the invitation of George Balanchine?
Gelsey Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland
Gelsey Kirkland (born December 29, 1952) is an American ballerina.
 Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age fifteen, at the invitation of George Balanchine.
 She was promoted to soloist in 1969 and principal in 1972.
 She went on to create leading roles in many of the great twentieth century ballets by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Antony Tudor including Balanchine's revival of "The Firebird", Robbins' "Goldberg Variations", and Tudor's "The Leaves are Fading".
 Balanchine re-choreographed his version of Stravinsky's "The Firebird" specifically for her.
 She left the New York City Ballet to join the American Ballet Theatre in 1974.
Maggie Black
Margaret "Maggie" Black (March 31, 1930 – May 11, 2015) was a ballet teacher who taught in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s.
 She coached dancers such as Martine Van Hamel, Kevin McKenzie, Natalia Makarova and Gelsey Kirkland.
 She developed a ballet technique based on anatomy.
 She stressed moving from a neutral spinal and pelvic alignment with weight evenly distributed throughout each foot.
 She amassed a large following of both ballet and modern dancers.
 Eventually she split her class into two, one for modern dancers and one for ballet dancers.
 Choreographers such as William Forsythe and Ohad Naharin attended her class.
Nora Kimball
Nora Koito Kimball-Mentzos or simply Nora Kimball is a ballet teacher and former American ballerina, who is often overlooked for being one of the first African American female soloists—the second -- [at American Ballet Theatre (ABT).
 She danced with the ABT in the mid 1980s and as an African American who is also Asian American, preceded Misty Copeland, who is often credited as the first.
 ABT has been described as one of the three great American-style classical ballet companies on the world stage today (along with New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet). Patricia Wilde
Patricia Wilde (born 1928 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a former principal ballerina of New York City Ballet, where she danced every major role in the repertoire, many of them created especially for her by George Balanchine.
 Following her retirement from NYCB she would become a famed ballet mistress and teacher.
 In 1982 she was appointed artistic director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre where she served until 1997.
 She is a recipient of the Dance Magazine Award and the 56th Inductee into the National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame.
 Her biography "Wilde Times: Patricia Wilde, George Balanchine and the Rise of New York City Ballet", by Joel Lobenthal was published in 2015 by the University Press of New England. Heather Watts
Heather Watts (born September 27, 1953), was a principal ballerina with New York City Ballet.
 A native of California, Ms. Watts was born as Linda Heather Watts in Long Beach on September 27, 1953.
 As a little girl, she was a troublemaking child.
 She had always wanted to be an actress.
 An acting coach advised her taking ballet classes, seeing as she was incredibly dramatic (and clumsy).
 She started dancing at the age of 10, came to New York at the age of 13 on a Ford Foundation summer scholarship to attend the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet.
 She moved permanently to New York at age 15, again on a Ford Foundation scholarship to the School of American Ballet.
 Watts joined the New York City Ballet in 1970 and was promoted to principal dancer by company founder George Balanchine in 1979.
 George Balanchine took Watts into his companies "because he would not let such a talent disappear."
 During Ms. Watts's tenure with the company, she had numerous principal roles created for her by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Peter Martins among others.
 Mr. Balanchine gave Ms. Watts the principal roles in many of his existing masterpieces, including "Agon", Concerto Barocco, "Apollo", Symphony in C, "Theme and Variations" and "Serenade".
 Ms. Watts performed around the world and starred in numerous "Dance in America" television programs, and she performed opposite frequent partner Mikhail Baryshnikov at the White House in a national televised performance of Balanchine's "Rubies" for President and Mrs. Carter.
 Ms. Watts retired from the stage in a gala performance at Lincoln Center in 1995. Balanchine technique
Balanchine technique is the ballet performance style invented by dancer, choreographer, and teacher George Balanchine (1904-1983), and a trademark of the George Balanchine Foundation.
 It is used widely used today in many of Balanchine's choreographic works.
 It is employed by ballet companies and taught in schools throughout North America, including the New York City Ballet and School of American Ballet, where it first emerged. Walpurgisnacht Ballet
Walpurgisnacht Ballet is a ballet made by New York City Ballet's co-founder and founding choreographer George Balanchine for a 1975 production of Gounod's 1859 "Faust" at the Théâtre National de l'Opéra, including the additional ballet music from 1869.
 The New York City Ballet premiere was its first presentation as an independent work and took place on Thursday, 15 May 1980 at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
 Balanchine had previously made dances for a production of "Faust" at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, danced by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, as well as in 1935 for the Metropolitan Opera and 1945 for the Opera Nacional, Mexico City. John Clifford (choreographer)
John Clifford, born June 12th is the founder / artistic director of the original Los Angeles Ballet (1974–1985), and the chamber sized touring ensemble, Ballet of Los Angeles (1988–1991) and the creator of “CASABLANCA, THE DANCE” produced by Warner Bros.
 Theatre Ventures, Inc. (which premiered in Beijing, China at the historic "Great Hall of the People" in 2005) and his Los Angeles Dance Theater.
 Before that time,Clifford was a principal dancer and choreographer with George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet, (1966–1974) and guest artist from 1974–1980, and was widely considered to be Balanchine’s protégé (Saturday Review).
 He choreographed his first (of 8) ballets for the NYC Ballet under Balanchine at age 20 thus making him the 2nd youngest choreographer in history ever to be attached to a major company.
 The first was Balanchine himself who was 20 yrs-old when he choreographed his first ballet for Serge Diaghilev's "Ballets Russes."
 During his time with Balanchine, in his early 20's, he also was a guest choreographer with co's ranging from the San Francisco Ballet, to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, to the Deutsche Oper Ballet in Berlin.
 Clifford's works were also featured in many TV shows and movies, such as "Flashdance," "The Man Who Loved Women," and TV series such as "Dynasty," "Glitter," and other shows produced by Blake Edwards and Aaron Spelling. A Midsummer Night's Dream (ballet)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a two-act ballet choreographed by George Balanchine to Felix Mendelssohn's music to Shakespeare's play of the same name.
 In addition to the incidental music, Balanchine incorporated other Mendelssohn works into the ballet, including the Overtures to "Athalie", "Son and Stranger", and "The Fair Melusine", the "String Symphony No. 9 in C minor" and "The First Walpurgis Night".
 "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Balanchine's first completely original full-length ballet, premiered at New York City Ballet on 17 January 1962, with Edward Villella in the role of Oberon, Melissa Hayden in the role of Titania, and Arthur Mitchell in the role of Puck.
 The ballet employs a large children's corps de ballet.
 Act I tells Shakespeare's familiar story of lovers and fairies while Act II presents a strictly classical dance wedding celebration.
 The ballet dispenses with Shakespeare's play-within-a-play finale.
 "A Midsummer Night's Dream" opened The New York City Ballet's first season at the New York State Theater in April, 1964. Nicholas Magallanes
Nicholas Magallanes (1922–1977) was a first-generation principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.
 Along with Jerome Robbins, Francisco Moncion and Maria Tallchief, Magallanes was among the core group of dancers with which George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein formed the New York City Ballet (formerly "Ballet Society") in 1948.
 Magallanes created the title rôle in Balanchine's "Orpheus" to music by Stravinsky, the ballet that marked the debut of the new company.