Oklahoma City Ballet has been Oklahoma City's professional ballet company for over 45 years. The Oklahoma City Ballet’s earliest beginnings were in 1963 as the Oklahoma City Civic Ballet under the artistic direction of Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers Yvonne Chouteau and Miguel Terekhov. Under the Artistic Direction of Robert Mills since 2008, the company now boasts an impressive roster of full time dancers from around the world and regularly commisions new works from the industry's top choreographers. Oklahoma City Ballet is the resident dance company of the Civic Center Music Hall and tours as part of the Oklahoma Arts Council’s touring program. It also tours under the auspices of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Touring Program and the Heartland Arts Fund. The Oklahoma City Ballet Yvonne Chouteau School provides superb dance training for students interested in becoming professional ballet dancers as well as others who want recreational dance classes. Students trained in the school have been regularly accepted into summer sessions and advanced classes at The School of American Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, The San Francisco Ballet and others. Former students have gone on to professional careers with the Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre among others, while some have gone on to “graduate” into the Oklahoma City Ballet as professional dancers in the company.