The late Heinz Poll is best known as the founder, choreographer, and artistic director of Ohio Ballet, a dance company that flourished for over thirty years and was called a "gem" and "the best news in dance" by critics in Boston and New York. Based at the University of Akron, Ohio Ballet toured forty-four states and several countries, including Italy and Mexico, often performing some of the sixty-plus works that Heinz Poll created for his dancers.