1948 – Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Scènes de ballet for Sadler’s Wells Ballet

With music by Igor Stravinsky and designs by André Beaurepaire, Scènes de ballet was Frederick Ashton’s homage to the choreography of the great Franco-Russian master Marius Petipa. Fascinated at the time by geometry, Ashton created an enigmatic masterpiece of considerable technical and stylistic challenges. First performed by the Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1948, the original cast included Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes.