ballets » Swan Lake
Rudolf Nureyev and Lesley Collier in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House, photo Anthony Crickmay. London, England, 1982 © Anthony Crickmay / Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Podcast » Christopher Wheeldon
Christopher Wheeldon talks in 2003 with his former classmate and Royal Ballet First Soloist Jane Burn. Christopher speaks about his early years in dance with candour and charm, mentioning Anatole...
The ballet writer Gerald Dowler is joined in a special episode of Voices of British Ballet by Monica Mason (former Royal Ballet student, principal dancer and director), Jane Pritchard (curator of...
Podcast » Antoinette Sibley
Antoinette Sibley talks with Alastair Macaulay. Her wonderful mix of enthusiasm, appreciation and practicality typify the glorious mercurial talent that has beguiled a generation of dancers and...
Podcast » Violette Verdy
This interview with Violette Verdy is introduced by the dance critic and historian Alastair Macaulay. Violette Verdy’s laughter and intelligence shine through in this discussion with Clement...
Timeline Event » 1930 – The First performance by The Camargo Society
The Camargo Society was a subscription ballet club formed in 1930 to support and nurture British ballet. Set up by Philip J.S. Richardson, the editor of the Dancing Times, and the critics Arnold...
Timeline Event » 1932 – The Vic-Wells Ballet dances Act II of Swan Lake
This was the first performance of classical choreography by the Vic-Wells Ballet. Swan Lake is a ballet with music by Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky with choreograhy created by Marius Petipa (Acts I and...
Timeline Event » 1961 – Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s The Two Pigeons by The Royal Ballet Touring Company
Originally performed under the title Les Deux Pigeons, and premiering on St Valentine’s Day in 1961 by The Royal Ballet Touring Company, Frederick Ashton’s ballet The Two Pigeons is a cousin to...
The Snow Maiden was the first Anglo-Soviet collaboration in ballet, Vladimir Bourmeister being the first Soviet choreographer to work with any Western company. It was later staged by the...
Timeline Event » 1981 – Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet dances Peter Wright and Galina Samsova’s new production of Swan Lake
In the autumn of 1981, Sadler’s Wells (now Birmingham) Royal Ballet undertook an ambitious undertaking – a new production of Swan Lake. Produced by Peter Wright and Galina Samsova and...
Timeline Event » 1986 – Anthony Dowell becomes director of The Royal Ballet
In 1986, principal dancer Anthony Dowell succeeded Norman Morrice as director of The Royal Ballet. During his tenure Dowell produced new productions of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Don Quixote...
Timeline Event » 1987 – Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures established
Matthew Bourne graduated from the Laban Centre (now Trinity Laban) in London with a degree in dance theatre in 1985. After this, as choreographer and artistic director of his first company,...
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 – Galina Samsova becomes director of Scottish Ballet
Galina Samsova was artistic director of Scottish Ballet from 1991 until 1997. There, she collaborated with choreographer Oleg Vinogradov of the Kirov Ballet, mounted new productions of Swan Lake and...
Matthew Bourne created a revolutionary interpretation of Swan Lake for Adventures in Motion Pictures at Sadler’s Wells, London, in 1995. The swans were bare-chested men dancing in shorts resembling...
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...
In his own training Petipa combined elements of both French and Italian traditions. From this heritage he did much not only to create the Russian school from which his great ballets flowed, but also...