Sandra Jennings

Sandra Jennings was born in Boston. She began her dance training at an early age with June Paxman of the Washington Ballet and E. Virginia Williams at Boston Ballet and later with teachers such as Harriet Hoctor, Shanna Bereska and Margaret Gill. At the age of thirteen she received a Ford Foundation scholarship to the School of American Ballet in New York where she studied with teachers including Diana Adams, Alexandra Danilova, Felia Doubrovska, Suki Schorer and Stanley Williams. In 1974, George Balanchine asked her to join New York City Ballet where she performed an enormous repertoire including principal and solo roles in many Balanchine and Jerome Robbins ballets. In addition, she danced in works by John Taras, Jacques d’Amboise, Sir Fredrick Ashton and Peter Martins, performed with Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Patricia McBride, Melissa Hayden, Helgi Tómasson, Violette Verdy and Edward Villella and was seen on television in Dance in America, Live from Lincoln Center, Live from Studio 8H and Canadian television programmes. In 1985, Sandra Jennings was invited to teach for Robert Denvers and was an assistant to Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux at the Chautauqua Institute. Since then she has taught at many schools and with dance companies throughout the world. Both as a coach and ballet master she worked for Pennsylvania Ballet for nine years and for San Francisco Ballet for four years. She is currently on the faculty at Marin Ballet. On behalf of the Balanchine Trust she stages George Balanchine’s works for various companies in the United States as well as abroad. For the restaging of Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 in the 2024/25 season, she is working with the Vienna State Ballet for the first time.