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...
companies » Royal Ballet
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...
Timeline Event » 1912 – Winifred Edwards joins Anna Pavlova’s company
Most famous for the work she did with many dancers of The Royal Ballet towards the end of her career, the fascinating early life of Winifred Edwards (1895-1989) is often overlooked. Her early...
Timeline Event » 1926 – Ninette de Valois opens the Academy of Choreographic Art
Ninette de Valois (1898-2001) was an Irish dancer, choreographer and founding director of The Royal Ballet.In 1918 and 1919 she became principal dancer for the Beecham Opera at Covent Garden and...
Timeline Event » 1950 – Sadler’s Wells Ballet dances George Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial for the first time
Originally created for American Ballet Caravan, George Balanchine’s Ballet Imperial was performed by Sadler’s Wells Ballet for the first time at the Royal Opera House in 1950. Danced to Pyotr...
Timeline Event » 1954 – Sadler’s Wells Ballet dances Mikhail Fokine’s The Firebird for the first time
The acquisition in 1954 of The Firebird, one of the greatest works created for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, was a major step in connecting the Sadler’s Wells Ballet with its Ballets Russes...
Timeline Event » 1955 – Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet is expanded and later becomes The Royal Ballet Touring Company
Peggy van Praagh left the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in the summer of 1955. With this development and the understanding that it was increasingly difficult for the Covent Garden troupe to tour...
Timeline Event » 1955 – Rudolf and Joan Benesh present The Benesh System (now the Benesh Movement Notation)
Rudolf Benesh was born in 1916 and became a qualified accountant, having also read Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art and Music. He married Joan Rothwell in 1949. Rothwell was born in Liverpool in...
Created by Frederick Ashton to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, Birthday Offering is a one-act divertissement for seven ballerinas and their partners, and includes...
Timeline Event » 1956 – The Sadler’s Wells Ballet Companies and School became The Royal Ballet, The Royal Ballet Touring Company and The Royal Ballet School
In the autumn of 1956, Ninette de Valois’ companies and school received the Royal Charter, bringing all three entities under the one title of The Royal Ballet, with HM The Queen as Patron and HRH...
One of Frederick Ashton’s most loved, successful and widely performed ballets, La Fille mal gardée is a sunny, bucolic version of a work dating back to the end of the 18th century. The great...
Timeline Event » 1962 – First performance of Kenneth MacMillan’s The Rite of Spring by The Royal Ballet
Igor Stravinsky’s 1913 score for Vaslav Nijinsky’s short-lived ballet The Rite of Spring has been used by countless subsequent choreographers for their own productions. Among the very finest...
Timeline Event » 1963 – Balletmakers Limited created
Established as a facilitator for the creation of new dance pieces outside of established companies, Balletmakers Limited grew out of Teresa Early’s desire to choreograph despite her understanding...
Timeline Event » 1963 – Frederick Ashton becomes director of The Royal Ballet
In 1963, Ninette de Valois stepped down as director of The Royal Ballet, although she remained actively involved in the companies and school she created until her death in 2001. She was replaced by...
Timeline Event » 1963 – The Royal Ballet dances the ‘Kingdom of the Shades’ scene from Marius Petipa’s La Bayadère for the first time
This mysteriously beautiful ballet, originally in four Acts, was created in 1877 by Marius Petipa, ballet master of the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg. This typically Romantic tale has undergone...
Timeline Event » 1964 – Ballet for All established
Born in 1920, writer and lecturer Peter Brinson studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford. After serving during World War Two, Brinson worked at the London Film Centre, and...
Acquired in 1964 for The Royal Ballet by Frederick Ashton as director and born out of his reverence for the choreographer, Bronislava Nijinska’s charming Les Biches, a seemingly light-as-a-soufflé...
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...
The acquisition of a second Bronislava Nijinska work by The Royal Ballet ensured the survival of perhaps her greatest masterpiece. Les Noces, an austere depiction of a Russian peasant wedding, was...
Timeline Event » 1966 – The Royal Ballet Touring Company dances Act III of Marius Petipa’s Raymonda for the first time
Marius Petipa’s Raymonda was originally performed by the Imperial Russian Ballet in St Petersburg in 1898 to music by Alexander Glazunov. Rudolf Nureyev staged the full-length Raymonda for The...
Timeline Event » 1966 – The Royal Ballet performs Kenneth MacMillan’s Song of the Earth for the first time
Das Lied von der Erde was an orchestral song-cycle composed by Gustav Mahler in 1907 to 1908. It is based on six songs translated from the Chinese originals by Hans Bethge. The songs dwell on themes...
First performed by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1928, George Balanchine’s Apollo was only the fourth work by Balanchine to enter The Royal Ballet’s repertoire after Ballet Imperial in...
Timeline Event » 1967 – The Royal Ballet Choreographic Group launched
Giving their first performance at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, in 1967, The Royal Ballet Choreographic Group was headed by Leslie Edwards and supported by the Friends of Covent Garden. Over...
Enigma Variations was choreographed by Frederick Ashton to Edward Elgar’s music in designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman. It was first performed by The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in 1968. Elgar...
Timeline Event » 1969 – Northern Dance Theatre (later Northen Ballet Theatre) formed
Canadian-born Laverne Meyer studied at the Rambert School and The Royal Ballet School, joining Western Theatre Ballet in 1957, where he danced principal roles before eventually becoming assistant...
Timeline Event » 1970 – Kenneth MacMillan becomes director of The Royal Ballet
Frederick Ashton ceased being director of The Royal Ballet in 1970 under controversial circumstances. The new director, Kenneth MacMillan, was to have shared the job with John Field, but when it...
Timeline Event » 1970 – The Royal Ballet dances Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering for the first time
Dances at a Gathering, which had been created for New York City Ballet in 1969, represented the first work by Jerome Robbins to enter The Royal Ballet’s repertoire. Danced to music by Frédéric...
Timeline Event » 1970 – The Royal Ballet Touring Company becomes The Royal Ballet New Group (later renamed Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet)
The Royal Ballet went through a period of re-organisation in 1970, attempting to integrate the Covent Garden and Touring sections of the company. The core of the dancers would remain at Covent...
Timeline Event » 1971 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s three-act version of Anastasia by The Royal Ballet
Anastasia was originally choreographed in 1967 by Kenneth MacMillan as a one-act ballet for Lynn Seymour and the Deutsche Oper Ballet Berlin, with music by Bohuslav Martinů and designs by Barry Kay....
Timeline Event » 1973 – David Gayle’s Yorkshire Ballet Seminars established
David Gayle danced with The Royal Ballet in the 1960’s and, on leaving the company, was the very first man to enrol on the newly formed Teacher Training Course at The Royal Ballet School. He...
Timeline Event » 1974 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon by The Royal Ballet
The eponymous heroine of Kenneth MacMillan’s 1974 Manon has become a role that nearly all aspiring ballerinas long to dance. Though there was initial criticism of the seemingly one-dimensional...
Kenneth Macmillan’s hugely popular Elite Syncopations emerged out of a newfound enthusiasm for ragtime music in the 1970s. Danced to music by Scott Joplin and others, MacMillan’s subversive side...
Jerome Robbins’ exploration of Frédéric Chopin found a comic outlet in The Concert, originally performed by New York City Ballet in 1956 and staged by The Royal Ballet in 1975. Audience-members...
A Month in the Country was created in 1976 by Frederick Ashton for The Royal Ballet. It was based on the play by Ivan Turgenev, and was almost more than 40 years in gestation. It was pushed on its...
Timeline Event » 1977 – The Royal Ballet New Group becomes Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet with Peter Wright as director
Peter Wright studied ballet with Kurt Jooss, Vera Volkova and Peggy van Praagh. After dancing with several companies, including Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, he became director of the Sadler’s...
Timeline Event » 1977 – Norman Morrice becomes director of The Royal Ballet
After Kenneth MacMillan stepped down as artistic director of The Royal Ballet in 1977, the company appointed Norman Morrice who had, until then, been primarily associated as a choreographer and...
Timeline Event » 1978 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling by The Royal Ballet
With his fourth three-act ballet, Mayerling, Kenneth MacMillan cemented his legacy for reinvigorating the full-length narrative ballet for the modern age. Mayerling, first performed by The Royal...
Timeline Event » 1980 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s Gloria by The Royal Ballet
Kenneth MacMillan’s 1980 ballet Gloria is infused with personal meaning, as well as being a commentary on the futility of war, not just the Great War, which was spoken of as the ‘war to end all...
Inspired by a recording of Henri Duparc’s music sung by Janet Baker, Michael Corder’s L’Invitation au Voyage could be said to follow the journey through the singer’s emotional life. First...
John Cranko created Onegin in 1965 for his company, Stuttgart Ballet, using his star dancers Marcia Haydée and Ray Barra to create the roles of Tatiana and Onegin respectively, with Egon Madsen as...
Timeline Event » 1986 – Ballet Cymru established under Darius James
Founded in 1986 by artistic director Darius James and administrative director Yvonne Williams, Ballet Cymru aimed to provide and produce high quality classical ballet in Wales, initially making a...
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 » 1988 – Premiere of David Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café by The Royal Ballet
With a wit that doesn’t undercut the poignancy of its subject, in 1988 David Bintley created a remarkable piece of entertainment with a stark warning perhaps that humans are still not heeding. The...
2The Prince of the Pagodas was originally choreographed by John Cranko for The Royal Ballet in 1957 and was hailed at the time as the first full-length British ballet. Performed at the Royal Opera...
Timeline Event » 1990 – Irek Mukhamedov joins The Royal Ballet
After his defection from the Soviet Union, Bolshoi Ballet star Irek Mukhamedov joined The Royal Ballet. He remained with the company for 11 years, acting as a final muse for Kenneth MacMillan and...
Timeline Event » 1991 – A Chance to Dance programme established
Set up by The Royal Ballet in 1991, A Chance to Dance offered free ballet classes to underprivileged children in three London boroughs. Inspired in part by the powerful social impact Arthur...
Timeline Event » 1991 – The Royal Ballet performs William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated for the first time
First performed by the Paris Opera Ballet in 1987, William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated entered the repertory of The Royal Ballet for the first time in 1991. With crashing music by...
Timeline Event » 1993 – Derek Deane becomes director of English National Ballet
Derek Deane, the choreographer and former principal dancer with The Royal Ballet, was appointed artistic director of English National Ballet. He created a number of new productions for the coming,...
Timeline Event » 1998 – Carlos Acosta joins The Royal Ballet
Carlos Acosta joined The Royal Ballet and gave his first performance with the company in William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated at Sadler’s Wells. He remained with the company until...
Timeline Event » 1999 – The BalletBoyz established
British-born dancers Michael Nunn and William Trevitt first met at The Royal Ballet School and built an important friendship during their respective careers as principal dancers with The Royal...
Timeline Event » 2001 – Ross Stretton becomes director of The Royal Ballet
Ross Stretton was appointed the new director of The Royal Ballet after Anthony Dowell retired in 2001. His appointment lasted for just one year.
Timeline Event » 2002 – Monica Mason becomes director of The Royal Ballet
Following the departure of Ross Stretton, Monica Mason was appointed director of The Royal Ballet in 2002, staying in post until 2012. During her tenure, she staged major revivals of Frederick...
Timeline Event » 2002 – Ashley Page becomes director of Scottish Ballet
In 2002, Scottish Ballet was searching for a new artistic director who would help revitalise the company. They appointed choreographer and former Royal Ballet principal Ashley Page, who remained in...
Timeline Event » 2006 – Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Chroma by The Royal Ballet
First performed by The Royal Ballet in 2006, the huge success of Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, a highly charged abstract work in minimalist designs and costumes, led directly to the appointment of...
Asphodel Meadows was Liam Scarlett’s first work for the main stage at the Royal Opera House. Performed by The Royal Ballet to music by Francis Poulenc, it announced his arrival as a new voice in...
Timeline Event » 2011 – Premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by The Royal Ballet
Christopher Wheeldon choreographed Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for The Royal Ballet in 2011 to music by Joby Talbot. A co-production between The Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada,...
Timeline Event » 2012 – Kevin O’Hare becomes director of The Royal Ballet
Following the retirement of Monica Mason in 2012, Kevin O’Hare was appointed director of The Royal Ballet.
Timeline Event » 2015 – Premiere of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works by The Royal Ballet
Woolf Works was Wayne McGregor’s first full-length work for The Royal Ballet, set to music by Max Richter and inspired by three novels by Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves. The...
Timeline Event » 2017 – Crystal Pite creates Flight Pattern for The Royal Ballet
Flight Pattern, a piece made for 36 members of The Royal Ballet, and set to the first section of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, marked an end to an 18 year hiatus of women choreographers...
Timeline Event » 2017 – Kenneth MacMillan Celebration
From the 18 October until 1 November 2017, the Royal Opera House combined the talents of all five of Britain’s major classical ballet companies for the first time to celebrate the 25th anniversary...
Photography has continually transformed itself, like all the other arts. How has this affected the photography of ballet? When I joined Scottish Ballet in 1977 Peter Darrell organised a Choreographic...