 After choreographing "Cinderella" in 1970 for the National Ballet of Washington, D.C., he joined the company in 1971 as co-director with Frederic Franklin.That same year, he staged a new production of "The Sleeping Beauty" in observance of the inaugural season of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.After a brief association with Ruth Page's Chicago Ballet, in 1976, Stevenson was appointed artistic director of the Houston Ballet, which he developed into one of America's leading ballet companies.