Darci Kistler to retire from New York City Ballet

Sic transit the company of Balanchine...

Darci Kistler, the last remaining ballerina at New York City Ballet to have been molded and hired by its co-founder George Balanchine, plans to retire in the 2010 season, she said on Wednesday.

That would complete three decades with the company, where Balanchine singled her out at the tender age of 17 in 1982 to become a principal, after only two years there.

“As it’s happened with every dancer, there’s a certain point where you realize, ‘I want to go off the stage gracefully,’ ” Ms. Kistler, 44, said in a telephone interview. “I just felt it was time.”

Ms. Kistler said she wanted to devote more of her day to teaching at the School of American Ballet, affiliated with the company, where she has been leading a hefty schedule of classes for 15 years. And the aches and pains that come with age have taken their toll, she said.

Read more at the NYTimes.