New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founed in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein with musical director Leon Barzin. City Ballet company grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.