Rudolf Nureyev’s version of Romeo and Juliet for London Festival Ballet is highly cinematic, sumptuous and colourful, and emphasises the inevitability of the couple’s tragic fate while also...
people » Patricia Ruanne
Patricia Ruanne (1945-2002). British ballerina, teacher and director
Patricia Ruanne was born in Leeds in 1945. She studied at The Royal Ballet School and joined The Royal Ballet Touring Company in 1962. She became a principal in 1969. In 1973 she left The Royal Ballet to join London Festival Ballet (LFB), where she was able to develop her career as a ballerina in the classics. Her roles at LFB included Princess Aurora in Rudolf Nureyev production of The Sleeping Beauty and Juliet in his version of Romeo and Juliet. In 1983, in the first British production of John Cranko’s Onegin, Ruanne took the part of Tatiana, coached by Marcia Haydée.
From 1983 1985, Ruanne was ballet mistress at LFB, and then went to the Paris Opéra Ballet as ballet mistress at the invitation of Nureyev, who was then the company’s director. She worked there from 1986 until 1996, and from 1999 to 2000 she was acting director of the Ballet of La Scala, Milan. Afterwards, she worked as a freelance teacher and répétiteur.
Patricia Ruanne died in Rome in 2022.
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...