Since the 1930s, ballet has revolutionized the United States. The country truly experienced ballet for the first time in 1917 when the Russian touring company, Ballet Russes, came to the United States. Sergei Diaghilev, the artistic director, took the company on a world tour with the goal of introducing ballet to all cultures. After the company disbanded in 1929, the dancers have spread around the world starting their own companies. New York City quickly became a hot spot for ballet as three prominent companies changed the country forever, making their mark not only in the artistic scene, but social and political scenes as well.

George Balanchine, Ballet Russes dancer, moved to the US in 1933 determined to establish a ballet school competitive with the schools in Europe. He founded the School of American Ballet (SAB) in 1934 where he educated his students in the Balanchine technique he developed. In 1947 he founded his own company, New York City Ballet (NYCB). As an influential choreographer, he staged 463 ballets, including The Nutcracker (1954), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1963), and Don Quixote (1965). His style can be identified by quick, sharp movements. Balanchine developed an ideal aesthetic for his dancers, known as the “Balanchine Ballet Body.” It is characterized by long lean legs, a short torso, and a small, round head. As a result, ballet dancers are often stereotyped as anorexic. SAB thrived and continues to thrive as a top ballet school that has educated many notable dancers, such as: Suzanne Farrell, Gelsey Kirkland, and Robert Joffrey. Today NYCB is almost exclusively SAB trained and is one of the top companies in the world, but only one company revolutionized the country.

In 1937, The American Ballet Theatre (ABT) was founded by the Ballet Russes dancer, Mikhail Mordkin and his student, Lucia Chase. While NYCB is a neoclassical company founded on Balanchine technique, ABT is strictly classical ballet. The ballets they performed were staged in Europe prior to their American debut. However, ABT served as a residential company that exposed the United States to Russian ballet. Beyond the arts, ABT had a huge impact on the political and social atmosphere of the US during the Cold War. Russian dancers, Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova, and Mikhail Baryshnikov defected to escape communist regime. Baryshnikov, in particular, became an icon for democracy when he defected in 1974. His defection was widely publicized in the media when the American reporter, John Fraser, helped him escape the KGB after a performance in Canada. Baryshnikov was not a supporter of communism and he feared that with his ever growing fame in the USSR he would be forced to sign onto the system. ABT had a profound influence on American culture from an artistic and political standpoint. Naturally, as ballet’s popularity rose, it began to impact the United States socially.

As Baryshnikov gained fame, so did his pas de deux partner, Gelsey Kirkland, along with the entire company. Kirkland’s fame propelled ballet stereotypes because she had anorexia, bulimia, and a cocaine addiction. Her tell-all autobiography, "Dancing on My Grave," describes the lengths she went to achieve perfection. The media especially took an interest in her when news of her intense love affair with Baryshnikov was released. As these two dancers rose to stardom, ballet became a staple of American culture throughout the 1970s. People waited in line for hours for tickets to ABT performances to get any seat they could. Today, dancer, Misty Copeland, promotes diversity and racial equality as the first African American principal dancer at ABT. While ABT and NYCB flourished, another company arose, further defining American culture.

Graduate of SAB, Robert Joffrey, and Gerald Arpino took the ballet world by storm when they sought out to start their own school and company in New York City. The Joffrey Ballet School was founded in 1953 with the goal of eventually starting an American company trained by Americans. In 1956 the Joffrey Ballet began as a touring group of six dancers that traveled around the country in a U-Haul trailer. The company performed anywhere they could, even in school gymnasiums, trying to make ballet accessible to the general public. Although there were other touring groups, Joffrey’s repertoire surpassed them all.

Joffrey found its place as the 'Current Events Company.' The ballets Joffrey and Arpino staged were relevant to society at the time. Joffrey was the first American company to perform The Green Table, a ballet created by German choreographer Kurt Jooss in 1932, depicting the pointlessness of peace negotiations and the horrors of World War I. Joffrey restaged it in 1967 to serve as protest of the Vietnam War. In 1970, Arpino choreographed Trinity as a memorial to Vietnam victims and then was later revived as a memorial to victims of the AIDS outbreak. Joffrey was also the first company to perform in the Soviet Union as well the White House. Arpino’s rock ballet, “Astarte,” was a huge success when it premiered in September 1967 and then appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in March of 1968. Joffrey took the art of ballet to an entirely new level as it served as a platform for political views and the voice of the American youth. After Joffrey’s death, the company moved to Chicago for financial reasons. As a result, the Midwest gained access to a top ballet company and ballet’s sphere of influence expanded.

In retrospect, American culture has not only been shaped by ballet, but also reflected through it. Ballet has been a vessel for artistic, political, and social expression. Without ABT, NYCB, and the Joffrey Ballet it is possible that the US could not have progressed to the country it is today. Dance is still a tool used to speak to people of all ages and influence their beliefs while serving as a source of entertainment.