Kay Mazzo

Kay Mazzo (born January 17, 1946) is an American former ballet dancer and educator. In 1961, she joined Jerome Robbins' company, Ballets USA. The following year, she joined the New York City Ballet and was promoted to principal dancer in 1969. She created roles for George Balanchine and Robbins, before retiring from performing in 1981. She then joined the permanent faculty of the School of American Ballet in 1983, named co-chairman of faculty in 1997 and chair of faculty in 2018. She stepped down from the position in June 2022, but continues to teach.

Early life Mazzo was born on January 17, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois. She started taking dance lessons at age six and entered the School of American Ballet in New York in 1959, when she was thirteen. Mazzo graduated from the Rhodes Preparatory School.

Career She joined Jerome Robbins' touring company, Ballets USA, in 1961. She was a New York City Ballet apprentice at the time, but after learning that George Balanchine decided not to cast apprentices in The Nutcracker, she auditioned for Ballet USA out of curiosity, and unbeknownst to her, the company happened to be searching for a "naive-looking" ballet dancer to perform Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun. Other roles she was cast include Donizetti Variations, divertissement in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Square Dance and La Sonnambula.

In 1970, she created roles in Balanchine's Suite No. 3 and Robbins' In the Night.

Personal life In 1978, Mazzo married Albert Bellas, a businessman.