Podcast » Mark Morris
American dancer, choreographer and director Mark Morris is one of the most successful and influential of contemporary modern choreographers.
decade » 1980s
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 » 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...
Timeline Event » 1980 – Premiere of Frederick Ashton’s Rhapsody by The Royal Ballet
A celebration piece created for the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, Rhapsody is a ballet that quickly established itself in the repertoire because of its extraordinary musicality...
Timeline Event » 1980 – Premiere of Peter Darrell’s Chéri by Scottish Ballet
Based on the novel by Colette, Peter Darrell created Chéri for Scottish Ballet’s appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1980. With a commissioned score by David Earl, and designs by...
Timeline Event » 1981 – Phoenix Dance Company established
Phoenix Dance Company was established in Leeds in 1981 by David Hamilton, its founding director, Donald Edwards and Vilmore James. These young Black men were all inspired by the teaching they had...
Timeline Event » 1981 – Robert North becomes director of Rambert Dance
Best known as a dancer and choreographer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Robert North was appointed director of Ballet Rambert in 1981.
Timeline Event » 1981 – Premiere of Richard Alston’s Soda Lake at Riverside Studios
Soda Lake was originally created for a BBC TV programme. However, when this failed to materialise, choreographer Richard Alston decided to stage the piece for performance at Riverside Studios,...
First performed at Bristol’s Theatre Royal by Ballet Rambert in 1981, Christopher Bruce’s Ghost Dances tells stories of love and compassion, as death – in the form of the ‘ghost dancers’...
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 » 1982 – Premiere of Robert North’s Pribaoutki by Ballet Rambert
Robert North’s first original work for Ballet Rambert as artistic director was Pribaoutki, which literally means ‘a telling’ in Russian. It refers to a game where verse is created through one...
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...
Contemporary dance group Second Stride was founded in 1982 by choreographers Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies and Ian Spink to extend their opportunities in creating new work. Continuing until 1987,...
Timeline Event » 1982 – Premiere of David Bintley’s The Swan of Tuonela by Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet
The Swan of Tuonela was the first three-act ballet by David Bintley, then aged only 24. He rapidly established himself as the obvious successor to Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan in the...
Timeline Event » 1983 – Dance East established
Dance East has become not only a centre for dance in the east of England, but an innovative part of the British dance landscape in its efforts to develop and support artists and artistic leaders. The...
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 » 1984 – Michael Clark Company established
In 1984 Michael Clark formed his own company, Michael Clark Company, for whom he has both danced and choreographed. Among his creations are New Puritans, No Fire Escape In Hell, Because We Must, I am...
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 » 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 – DV8 Physical Theatre established by Lloyd Newson
Australian-born Lloyd Newson studied psychology and social work at Melbourne University before an interest in dance prompted his move to study at London Contemporary Dance School. Newson launched...
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 – Premiere of Richard Alston’s Pulcinella by Ballet Rambert
Based on the commedia dell’arte narrative of the 1920 Léonide Massine / Pablo Picasso / Igor Stravinsky ballet created for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Pulcinella is a homage to the genre...
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 » 1987 – Ballet Rambert renamed Rambert Dance Company
To better reflect its status as Britain’s leading modern dance repertory company, Ballet Rambert changed its name in 1987 to Rambert Dance Company.
With music by Philip Chambon, Christopher Bruce’s Swansong is a stark male trio that evokes the physical and mental torture of political prisoners. The ballet was first performed in 1987 on tour by...
Commissioned by the City of Salford as part of its celebration of the artist L.S. Lowry, A Simple Man follows the painter’s search for subjects, and his relationships with his mother and the...
Timeline Event » 1988 – Siobhan Davies Dance founded
Born Susan Davies in London in 1950, Siobhan Davies was studying art when she joined what would become London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1967. Davies created her first piece for the company in...
Timeline Event » 1988 – National Youth Ballet established
Jill Tookey founded the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain (NYB) in 1988, and remained artistic director until her death in 2016. Thousands of young people have taken part in NYB’s productions,...
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...
Timeline Event » 1988 – Premiere of Ashley Page’s Soldat by Rambert Dance Company
Ashley Page’s Soldat, created for Rambert Dance Company in 1988, has a clear narrative taken from the folk tale A Soldier’s Tale. It acts as a counterpoint to Page’s reputation for...
English National Ballet School (ENBS) – originally London Festival Ballet School – was started by the then director of the company, Peter Schaufuss in 1988. His aim was to provide talent for...
Timeline Event » 1989 – London Festival Ballet renamed English National Ballet
Peter Schaufuss was instrumental in changing London Festival Ballet’s name to English National Ballet. It better reflected the company’s touring schedule, spending less time in London and...
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 » 1989 – Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company opened
Shobana Jeyasingh was born in Chennai, India and studied Bharata Natyam, a form of classical Indian dance. She moved to the UK in 1981 to complete her masters degree in Shakespearean Studies and...
Grace Note » …and on: Fashion & Ballet in Step
Fashion and ballet have a symbiotic relationship, each drawing on the other. Twice a year, fashion designers must cast around for hot influences. These might come from anywhere but time and again,...
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...
Grace Note » 1970s: Adapting Adaptations
Many ballets adapt themes and short stories from other media. But the challenges and problems of adaptation are not confined to ballet. Adapt or die is a rule of life. Of art, too. We can’t go on...
Grace Note » 1940s onwards: The Wartime Quartet
It wasn’t only in ballet that women were leading British ballet forward. But in philosophy too, four redoubtable women change the face of the subject. G. E. M. Anscombe (1919 – 2001),...