The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Evening for Female Choreography

The School of American Ballet presents The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Evening for Female Choreography, an event celebrating the artistry, imagination, and leadership of the next generation of women in ballet. 

This special evening features short student-made films showcasing original choreography created by seven Advanced level female students, who participated in SAB’s Student Choreography program in December 2025. These films highlight the students’ creative process, collaborative spirit, and bold reimagining of classical ballet for today’s world. Throughout this development, our students are supported by SAB alums Emily Kikta, SAB’s first-ever Female Choreography Fellow and Faculty Member and New York City Ballet Soloist; and Justin Peck, SAB’s Student Choreography Advisor, Associate Faculty Member, and Board Member, and NYCB’s Resident Choreographer and Artistic Advisor. 

Interspersed with the screenings, SAB's Director of Intermediate/Advanced Divisions and Artistic Programming and former NYCB Principal dancer, Jenifer Ringer, will moderate conversations with the choreographers, offering audiences more insight into their inspirations, challenges, and approaches to choreographing on their peers and transforming their works into short films. 

The School of American Ballet gratefully acknowledges the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation for its visionary leadership in advancing gender equity in the choreographic field. Since 2011, the Foundation’s steadfast support of SAB’s Female Choreography has empowered these artists to develop their creative voices and shape the future of ballet. 

Join us in celebrating these emerging voices and to witness how SAB’s commitment to nurturing creativity continues to shape the future of dance. The School of American Ballet was founded in 1934 by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Since 1948 when the New York City Ballet was established, the School and NYCB have been intimately linked.  For over seven decades, SAB has been the official training academy of New York City Ballet.

Photo Credit: Rehearsal of SAB Advanced Women - Level D, 2024. Photo by Rosalie O’Connor.

SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff.

STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at [email protected]. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library.

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