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When the choreographer George Balanchine co-founded the School of American Ballet in New York City in 1934, the last thing on many people\u2019s minds was dance. The United States was still digging out from the Great Depression and often children dropped out of school to work.<\/p>\n
But nonetheless, the 29-year-old Balanchine believed a dance school was crucial to establishing a professional ballet company \u2014 which would become New York City Ballet. Now, 90 years later, the school he opened with 32 students has exploded into the most prestigious academy for young dancers in the United States.<\/p>\n
Nearly 800 students from 34 states and 12 countries were enrolled at the school\u2019s Lincoln Center campus in the most recent fiscal year, and graduates serve as artistic directors at more than 18 ballet programs around the country, including Los Angeles Ballet, Miami City Ballet and New York City Ballet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cYou would think things were at a standstill during the war,\u201d said Coco Kopelman, an alumna of the school who has served on its board for nearly 30 years. \u201cBut artists still painted, music was still conceived, the arts continued.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
That legacy was celebrated at a 90th-anniversary gala for the institution at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on Monday night. The event honored Ms. Kopelman, who is married to the former Chanel president and chief operating officer Arie L. Kopelman, and Suki Schorer, a dancer on Balanchine\u2019s New York City Ballet from 1959 to 1972 who is now a teacher at the school.<\/p>\n
(Balanchine, while lauded for his musicality, has recently come under scrutiny<\/a> for his affairs with much younger dancers, the painful thinness he required of his stars and the paucity of Black female dancers in his company.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Attendees included notable alums from around the country like Lourdes Lopez, the artistic director of Miami City Ballet; Melissa Barak, the artistic director of the Los Angeles Ballet; and Jonathan Stafford, the artistic director of both the School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet; as well as the model Sophie Sumner and the talent agent Kendall Werts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEven with social media and all these other distractions, young people are still excited by ballet,\u201d said Ms. Schorer, 84, adding that she is happy people are still pursuing it. \u201cIt\u2019s so great to see.\u201d<\/p>\n The black-tie event, which raised more than $1.3 million for the school\u2019s scholarship program \u2014 nearly 40 percent of its students receive need-based scholarships \u2014 kicked off at 6 p.m. with cocktails in the Koch Theater lobby. About 1,400 people clad in shimmering ball gowns and black suits sipped ros\u00e9 and Prosecco, chatting about the Oscars and the upcoming Broadway season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Aesha Ash<\/a>, an alumna of the school who in 2020 became the first Black female member of its permanent faculty, said she marveled at just how much instruction had evolved since she was a student in the 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cWe appreciate our dancers as artistic athletes,\u201d she said. \u201cWe look at the student as a whole person, not just their pli\u00e9s.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Around 7:20 p.m., attendees began making their way into the auditorium, where 10 students in the school\u2019s children\u2019s division lined up at five barres placed across the stage and demonstrated a series of techniques including pli\u00e9, demi pli\u00e9 and frapp\u00e9.<\/p>\n That was followed by an excerpt from \u201cIn Creases,\u201d a short, lively ballet set to Philip Glass\u2019s \u201cFour Movements for Two Pianos.\u201d It was choreographed by Justin Peck, a graduate of the school and the resident choreographer for New York City Ballet, who won a Tony Award for choreographing the 2018 Broadway revival of \u201cCarousel.\u201d (Mr. Peck was not feeling well and did not attend the gala.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The piece was followed by a performance of an excerpt from Balanchine\u2019s \u201cTchaikovsky Pas De Deux\u201d by the New York City Ballet principal dancers Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia, who leaped and pirouetted across the stage to rousing applause.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After the showcase, about 500 audience members made their way up the stairs to the promenade \u2014 where nearly 50 tables were topped with quince blossom centerpieces; bouquets of white anemones, carnations and roses; and flickering candles \u2014 for a dinner of burrata, rice cracker-crusted char, kimchi forbidden rice and blackout cake<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After dinner, there was more dancing. Attendees swayed to Whitney Houston\u2019s \u201cI Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)\u201d and Usher\u2019s \u201cDJ Got Us Fallin\u2019 in Love\u201d under soft purple lighting until just before midnight.<\/p>\n \u201cMy favorite is the dancing at these things,\u201d Ms. Sumner said as she got up to join. \u201cBecause everyone can really dance!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n