Podcast » John Tooley
If ever a job needed diplomacy it must be as General Director of the Royal Opera House, a post John Tooley held from 1970 until 1988. He was also Assistant to the General Administrator from 1955 to...
ballets » Romeo and Juliet
Podcast » David Wall
David Wall was one of the greatest male dancers of his era, with an extraordinary stage charisma, range, theatricality and honesty. In this interview he talks to Frank Freeman, a former colleague,...
Kenneth MacMillan was eager to give ballet its ‘new wave’, and though his earlier one-act works revealed a unique perspective and command of ballet’s expressive potential, it was his first...
Timeline Event » 1968 – Beryl Grey becomes director of London Festival Ballet
After a period of instability, London Festival Ballet appointed Beryl Grey as the company’s new artistic director. She commissioned a number of important productions for the company, including Mary...
Rudolf Nureyev’s version of Romeo and Juliet for London Festival Ballet is highly cinematic, sumptuous and colourful, and emphasises the inevitability of the couple’s tragic fate while also...
Timeline Event » 1984 – Peter Schaufuss becomes director of London Festival Ballet
Appointed as the company’s new artistic director, Peter Schaufuss widened London Festival Ballet’s repertoire, inviting Frederick Ashton to mount his Romeo and Juliet on the company in 1985, and...
Timeline Event » 1987 – Christopher Gable joins Northern Ballet Theatre as dancer and then artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre
As artistic director of Northern Ballet Theatre, Christopher Gable focused as much on the ‘theatre’ as the ‘ballet’ in the company’s title. In a relatively small UK theatre circuit,...
Timeline Event » 1991 – Premiere of Massimo Moricone’s of Romeo and Juliet by Northern Ballet Theatre
The premiere of Massimo Moricone’s production of Romeo and Juliet for Northern Ballet Theatre took place at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, 1991, with direction by Christopher Gable, music by Serge...
Timeline Event » 1997 – The first Royal Albert Hall ballet-in-the-round mounted
Now a regular fixture in Britain’s dance calendar, English National Ballet staged its first in-the-round production at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1997 with Derek Deane’s staging of Swan...