Boston Ballet debuts.

Founded by E. Virginia Williams in 1963, and an outgrowth of New England Ballet, its first performance is George Balanchine’s Apollo and Scotch Symphony and Anton Dolin’s Pas de Quatre at John Hancock Hall. The first professional repertory ballet company in New England, its first artistic director is Williams and first principal dancer is Laura Young, who remains so until retiring to teach at the company in 1989. The company subsequently moves to the Back Bay Theatre, the Orpheum, the Opera House, the National Theatre, to the Wang Center, and to its current home in the restored Opera House in 2009.