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 public alike. Sibley…
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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…
Podcast » Lynn Seymour
In any history of The Royal Ballet, a special place must be reserved for Lynn Seymour, as the dance actress par excellence. Here she tells Alastair Macaulay about her initial…
Podcast » Barbara Fewster
Here Barbara Fewster tells us about working at The Royal Ballet School. Her voice has a mixture of authority and kindness which will be remembered by literally thousands of students…
Podcast » Donald MacLeary
In this podcast featuring Donald MacLeary, the ballerina Darcey Bussell makes a fascinating and full introduction to her friend and mentor. She stresses the importance of a coach who is…
Podcast » Keith Money
Keith Money moved from loving and photographing horses to loving and photographing dancers (like Degas and his paintings). He flies in the face of convention and decided he wanted to…
Podcast » David Vaughan
David Vaughan – unparalleled writer on the choreography of Frederick Ashton – catches moments and movements from The Royal Ballet’s history. In this interview for Voices of British Ballet, which…
Podcast » Anne Heaton
Anne Heaton’s career coincided with an upsurge in creative talent at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet. Observant and wide ranging she reflects on many things, not least the enigmatic choreographer, Andrée…
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…
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…
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…
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 Ballet in 1978,…
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…
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….
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…
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…
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 » 1960 – Premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s The Invitation by The Royal Ballet Touring Company
In a bold move, in The Invitation Kenneth MacMillan chose to create a sexual drama of shifting emotions and desires that culminates with the rape of a young girl by…
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…