Podcast » Wendy Toye
The dancer and choreographer Adam Cooper introduces this wonderful interview with the dancer, choreographer, stage and film director Wendy Toye who begins by recalling chatting to Serge Diaghilev at...
companies » Sadler’s Wells Ballet
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...
Timeline Event » 1919 – World premieres of La Boutique fantasque and Le tricorne, by the Ballets Russes
La Boutique fantasque and Le tricorne Set in an enchanted toy shop in the 1860s, Léonide Massine’s La Boutique fantasque was one of his happiest and most effervescent works, danced to Ottorino...
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 » 1941 – The Vic-Wells Ballet renamed Sadler’s Wells Ballet
By 1935, the Vic-Wells Ballet had stopped dancing regularly at the Old Vic for a variety of reasons, not least the expense and confusion of moving between the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells, where the...
Timeline Event » 1944 – Premiere of Robert Helpmann’s Miracle in the Gorbals by Sadler’s Wells Ballet
Miracle in the Gorbals is a dramatic one-act ballet, choreographed in 1944 by Robert Helpmann to music by Arthur Bliss and designs by Edward Burra. It was first performed at Sadler’s Wells in...
Timeline Event » 1945 – Sadler’s Wells Opera Ballet created
Thanks to economist John Maynard Keynes, Ninette de Valois’ Sadler’s Wells Ballet was invited to become resident ballet company at the Royal Opera House after the theatre transitioned from its...
In 1946 the Sadler’s Wells Ballet opened their first season at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with a new production of The Sleeping Beauty. The scenery and costumes were designed by Oliver...
Timeline Event » 1946 – Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Symphonic Variations for Sadler’s Wells Ballet
Frederick Ashton’s Symphonic Variations was something of a blueprint for British ballet after the narrative-heavy works of the war years. It remains a touchstone for the lyrical and musical...
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...
Danced by Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1948 to music by Serge Prokofiev in designs by Jean-Denis Malclès, Cinderella was the first full-evening ballet made by a British choreographer. It shows...
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...
Taking Maurice Ravel’s sumptuous score for Mikhail Fokine’s 1912 ballet (since lost), Frederick Ashton created Daphnis and Chloë for Sadler’s Wells Ballet in 1951 as a vehicle for Margot...
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 – 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...