The Royal Ballet

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The Royal Ballet
Royal Ballet logo.jpg
General information
NameThe Royal Ballet
Previous names
  • Vic-Wells Ballet
  • Sadler's Wells Ballet
Year founded1931
Founder Dame Ninette de Valois
Patron HM The King
Principal venue Royal Opera House, London, UK
Website www.roh.org.uk
Senior staff
Director
Artistic staff
Music Director
Resident Choreographers
Other
Sister company Birmingham Royal Ballet
Associated schools Royal Ballet School

The Royal Ballet is a British internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois. [1] It became the resident ballet company of the Royal Opera House in 1946, and has purpose-built facilities within these premises. [1] It was granted a royal charter in 1956, becoming recognised as Britain's flagship ballet company.

Contents

The Royal Ballet was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century, and continues to be one of the world's most famous ballet companies to this day, generally noted for its artistic and creative values. The company employs approximately 100 dancers. The official associate school of the company is the Royal Ballet School, and it also has a sister company, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, which operates independently. The Prima ballerina assoluta of the Royal Ballet is the late Dame Margot Fonteyn.

History

Ninette de Valois, an Irish-born dancer founded the Academy of Choreographic Art, in 1926, a dance school for girls. [2] Her intention was to form a repertory ballet company and school, leading her to collaborate with the English theatrical producer and theatre owner Lilian Baylis. Baylis owned the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres and in 1925 she engaged de Valois to stage dance performances at both venues.

Sadler's Wells reopened in 1931 and the Vic-Wells Ballet and Vic-Wells Ballet School were established in premises at the theatre. These would become the predecessors of today's Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet School. Prior to her return to Britain, Ninette de Valois had been a member of the Ballets Russes, one of the most renowned and influential ballet companies of the 20th century. The company disbanded in 1929 following the death of its founder Serge Diaghilev. When de Valois formed the Vic-Wells Ballet, she employed some of the company's former stars, including Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, who joined as Principal dancers, and Tamara Karsavina, who worked with the company as an advisor. The Founder Musical Director was the conductor and composer Constant Lambert who had considerable artistic as well as musical influence over the early years of the company. [3]

After losing the link with the Old Vic theatre, in 1939 the company was renamed Sadler's Wells Ballet and the school became Sadler's Wells Ballet School. [4] Both continued at Sadler's Wells Theatre until 1946, when the company was invited to become the resident ballet company of the newly re-opened Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, under the direction of David Webster. The company relocated to the opera house the same year in 1946, with their first production at the venue being The Sleeping Beauty .

Following the relocation of the company, the school moved to its own premises in 1947. A sister company was established to continue performances at Sadler's Wells, called the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, under the direction of John Field. In 1955, the sister company temporarily lost its link with Sadler's Wells and returned to the Royal Opera House as a touring unit of the main company.

In 1956, a Royal Charter was granted for both companies and the school; they were subsequently renamed the Royal Ballet, Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School. [5]

The Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet returned to Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1970, while continuing to tour the country. In 1987, however, the company was invited to become the resident ballet company at the Birmingham Hippodrome. It relocated to Birmingham in 1990, being renamed Birmingham Royal Ballet and it ceased to be part of the Royal Ballet in 1997 when it was made independent of the Royal Opera House, with Sir Peter Wright as artistic director. Birmingham Royal Ballet retains close relationships with both the Royal Ballet and The Royal Ballet School, which is the official school of the company.

In 1964 the Royal Ballet established "Ballet for All" under the direction of Peter Brinson. Between 1964 and 1979 "Ballet for All" toured throughout the country, presenting around 150 performances per annum and reaching around 70,000 people each year. In 1976 the Royal Opera House established its schools' matinee programme.

Today the Royal Ballet remains the resident ballet company at the Royal Opera House, conducting its own tours internationally, and it continues to be the parent company of the Royal Ballet School, which is now based at White Lodge, Richmond Park and premises in Floral Street, which are adjacent to and have direct access to the Royal Opera House.

Sergeyev

During its formative years, the Sadler's Wells Ballet would become one of the first ballet companies outside the Soviet Union to stage full productions of ballets by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, which were central to the repertory of the Imperial Russian Ballet. To stage these ballets with her newly formed company, de Valois employed Nicholas Sergeyev, a former régisseur of the Imperial. He staged productions of Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty; Petipa and Ivanov's Swan Lake and The Nutcracker ; Petipa and Cecchetti's production of Coppélia ; and Petipa's Giselle . Created with the aid of choreographic notation written in St Petersburg at the turn of the 20th century, these works have been included in the repertoire of the Royal Ballet ever since. The company now uses Peter Wright's 1984 production of The Nutcracker, which uses some of Sergeyev's notation. Sergeyev's revivals of these ballets in London are regarded as the foundation point of the traditional classical ballet repertoire, and led to their being restaged throughout the world. Sergeyev is considered to have made one of the most significant contributions to the popularity of ballet worldwide. His choreographic notation and other materials relating to it have been preserved in the Sergeyev Collection, part of the theatre collection of the Harvard University Library.

Prima ballerina assoluta

The Royal Ballet is one of the few ballet companies in the world to have employed four dancers considered to be prima ballerina assoluta, including three who studied at the Royal Ballet School.

The first was Alicia Markova who, having been mentored by Ninette de Valois as a member of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, was invited to become one of the founder dancers of the Royal Ballet. She was designated the company's first Prima ballerina, and was later recognised as a Prima ballerina assoluta.

Margot Fonteyn trained at the Royal Ballet School and spent her entire career with the company. As a gift for her 60th birthday, she was appointed Prima ballerina assoluta by Queen Elizabeth II.

Phyllis Spira joined the Royal Ballet School in 1959, graduating into the Royal Ballet touring company. She later returned to her native South Africa, where she was appointed Prima ballerina assoluta by the President in 1984.

The most recent is Alessandra Ferri, who completed her training at the Royal Ballet Upper School and began her career with the Royal Ballet. After dancing with the company for four years, she was later appointed prima ballerina assoluta of La Scala Theatre Ballet in Milan.

Other prima ballerina assoluta have also appeared with the Royal Ballet as guest dancers, including: the French ballerina Yvette Chauvire [6] and the Georgian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili. [7]

Structure

The Royal Ballet has six ranks of dancers:

The Royal Ballet also has the special ranks of "guest artist" and "principal guest artist". The title of guest artist is given to a visiting dancer who has been cast in a role for a specific ballet or limited season. The title of principal guest artist is sometimes given to guest artists who perform with the company on a longer-term basis.

The company

The Royal Ballet employs approximately 100 dancers and a complete list as of 2013 is shown below. [8] The company also has an Executive, Artistic and Music staff, including the following: [9]

Principal dancers

NameNationalityTrainingOther companies
(inc. guest performances)
Matthew Ball Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom Royal Ballet School  
William Bracewell Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom Royal Ballet School Birmingham Royal Ballet
Reece Clarke Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom Royal Ballet School  
Cesar Corrales Flag of Cuba.svg Cuba
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Canada
Canada's National Ballet School
ABT Studio Company
English National Ballet
Lauren Cuthbertson Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom Royal Ballet School  
Francesca Hayward Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom Royal Ballet School  
Ryoichi Hirano Flag of Japan.svg JapanSetsuko Hirano Ballet School 
Fumi Kaneko Flag of Japan.svg JapanJinushi Kaoru Ballet SchoolJinushi Kaoru Ballet Company
Sarah Lamb Flag of the United States.svg United StatesBoston Ballet School Boston Ballet
Mayara Magri Flag of Brazil.svg BrazilPetite Danse School
Royal Ballet School
 
Steven McRae [12] Flag of Australia (converted).svg AustraliaHilary Kaplan
Royal Ballet School
 
Vadim Muntagirov Flag of Russia.svg Russia Royal Ballet School English National Ballet
Yasmine Naghdi Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom Royal Ballet School  
Marianela Núñez Flag of Argentina.svg ArgentinaColón Theatre Ballet School
Royal Ballet School
American Ballet Theatre
La Scala Theatre Ballet
Anna Rose O'Sullivan Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom Royal Ballet School  
Natalia Osipova
Flag of Russia.svg Russia Moscow State Academy of Choreography Bolshoi Ballet
American Ballet Theatre
Mikhaylovsky Theatre
Marcelino Sambé Flag of Portugal.svg PortugalNational Conservatory of Lisbon
Royal Ballet School
 
Akane Takada Flag of Japan.svg JapanHiromi Takahashi Ballet Studio
Bolshoi Ballet Academy
 

Principal character artists

First soloists

Soloists

  • Mica Bradbury
  • Lukas B. Brændsrød
  • Annette Buvoli
  • Olivia Cowley
  • Ashley Dean
  • Leticia Dias
  • Leo Dixon
  • David Donnelly
  • Téo Dubreuil
  • Tristan Dyer
  • Benjamin Ella
  • Hannah Grennell
  • Joonhyuk Jun
  • Sae Maeda
  • Taisuke Nakao
  • Romany Pajdak
  • Mariko Sasaki
  • Gina Storm-Jensen
  • David Yudes

First artists

  • Sophie Allnatt
  • Harris Bell
  • Liam Boswell
  • Harry Churches
  • Kevin Emerton
  • Daichi Ikarashi
  • Joshua Junker
  • Chisato Katsura
  • Bomin Kim
  • Harrison Lee
  • Isabel Lubach
  • Marco Masciari
  • Erico Montes
  • Nadia Mullova-Barley
  • Katharina Nikelski
  • Aiden O’Brien
  • Julia Roscoe
  • Giacomo Rovero
  • Leticia Stock
  • Charlotte Tonkinson
  • Amelia Townsend
  • Lara Turk
  • Yu Hang

Artists

  • Denilson Almeida
  • Madison Bailey
  • Martin Diaz
  • Olivia Findlay
  • Luc Foskett
  • Poppy Frankel
  • Brayden Gallucci
  • Scarlett Harvey
  • James Large
  • Ella Newton Severgnini
  • Viola Pantuso
  • Hanna Park
  • Maddison Pritchard
  • Grace Reid
  • Sumina Sasaki
  • Francisco Serrano
  • Marianna Tsembenhoi
  • Stanisław Węgrzyn
  • Ginevra Zambon

Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme

  • Bethany Bartlett
  • Sierra Glasheen
  • Seung Hee Han
  • Caspar Lench
  • Isabella Shaker
  • Blake Smith

Prix de Lausanne dancer

  • Julie Ann Joyner

Repertoire

Sir Frederick Ashton

Sir Frederick Ashton was the founder choreographer of the Royal Ballet. Previously a dancer with the Ballet Rambert, Ashton started his career as a choreographer under the direction of Dame Marie Rambert, before joining the Royal Ballet as its associate choreographer when the company was founded in 1931. He created the majority of the company's early works and staged their first performance at the Royal Opera House, a production of The Sleeping Beauty in 1946. Ashton was appointed artistic director of the Royal Ballet from 1963 to 1970, when he retired from the post. He continued to work as a choreographer internationally, with his final work being the Nursery Suite, for a gala performance by the Royal Ballet School at the Royal Opera House in 1986. His numerous ballets have since been staged by leading dance companies worldwide and feature strongly in the programming of the Royal Ballet today.

Works choreographed

Ashton created over 100 original ballet works and numerous other productions, some of the most notable including:

Sir Kenneth MacMillan

Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 1929 – 29 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977. Although a talented dancer, MacMillan is best known for his choreography, and particularly for his work with the Royal Ballet. He also worked with the American Ballet Theatre (1956–7) and the Deutsche Oper, Berlin (1966–69). He succeeded Frederick Ashton as Director of the Royal Ballet in 1970 and resigned after seven years, frustrated at balancing the conflicting demands of creating ballets with administration. He continued as Principal Choreographer to the Royal Ballet until his death in 1992.

Works choreographed

His full-length works include:

MacMillan's one-act ballets include:

Wayne McGregor

Prior to his appointment as Resident Choreographer of the Royal Ballet, Wayne McGregor has already established himself as an award-winning dancer, choreographer and director. His first choreography for the Royal Ballet, was Fleur de Peux, a solo work created in 2000 on Viviana Durante. This led to further commissions by the Royal Ballet, including Symbiont(s) in 2001, Qualia in 2003 and Engram in 2005. He also created the ballet brainstate in 2001, as a collaboration between the Royal Ballet and his own company, Random Dance. McGregor was appointed Resident Choreographer of the Royal Ballet in 2006, the first person to hold the post in sixteen years, and the first to be selected from the world of contemporary dance.

Works choreographed

McGregor's works for the Royal Ballet include:

  • Fleur de Peux
  • Symbiont(s)
  • Qualia
  • Engram
  • Chroma
  • Limen
  • Nimbus
  • Infra
  • Live Fire Exercise
  • Carbon Life
  • Woolf Works
  • The Dante Project

Fonteyn-Nureyev

First performing together with the Royal Ballet in Giselle on 21 February 1962, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev would form what has been called the greatest ballet partnership of all time. The partnership would lead to both dancers being noted amongst the most famous ballet dancers of all time and came at the peak of what is now widely regarded as the most successful period in the Royal Ballet's history.

On 12 March 1963, the couple premiered Sir Frederick Ashton's Marguerite and Armand, the first ballet created for them and one that become their signature piece. Performed to a piece of piano music by Franz Liszt, the ballet starts with Marguerite on her deathbed, and the story is told in flashback until the moment Armand arrives to hold her for the last time before she dies. Ashton had planned the piece specifically for Fonteyn, and it was critically acclaimed as Fonteyn's dramatic peak, with fifty photographers attending the dress rehearsal and twenty-one curtain calls at the premiere performance. The final performance of the ballet starring Fonteyn and Nureyev was staged at a gala at the London Coliseum in 1977 and it was not performed again until 2003. Against the wishes of Frederick Ashton that it not be performed by any other dancers than Fonteyn and Nureyev, it was revived as part of a Royal Ballet triple-bill, starring Nureyev's protegee Sylvie Guillem and the Royal Ballet star Jonathan Cope.

The Fonteyn-Nureyev partnership lasted for many years until Fonteyn's retirement from the Royal Ballet in 1979, aged 60. In 1970 after Frederick Ashton retired as artistic director of the Royal Ballet, there were many calls for Nureyev to be announced as his successor. However, Kenneth MacMillan was given the position, and Nureyev left the Royal Ballet as a Principal soon after to be a guest dancer internationally, later becoming artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet in 1983. Fonteyn and Nureyev had a lifelong relationship both on and offstage and were close friends until Fonteyn's death in 1991. Nureyev is quoted as saying of the partnership that they danced with "one body, one soul".


Notable people

Dancers

Guest dancers

Choreographers

Artistic directors

Ross Stretton

Born in Canberra, Australia, in 1952, Ross Stretton trained at the Australian Ballet School, later becoming a principal dancer with the Australian Ballet company. He then moved to America, where he danced with the Joffrey Ballet and as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre before retiring as a dancer in 1990. He was appointed regisseur of American Ballet Theatre, becoming assistant director of the company in 1993. After returning to Australia, he was artistic director of the Australian Ballet from 1997 to 2001.

Following Sir Anthony Dowell's retirement as artistic director of the Royal Ballet in 2001, the board of the Royal Opera House announced Stretton as his successor, with a three-year contract; however, he resigned the post after 13 months, in September 2002. Stretton's appointment and subsequent departure from the Royal Ballet generated an unprecedented level of media attention for the Royal Ballet in recent years, due to controversy caused by his management of the company. Following his resignation, Stretton returned to Australia where he worked as a teacher and consultant until his death from cancer in 2005.

A number of controversial issues and allegations as well as resistance to organisational change lead to Stretton's departure from the Royal Ballet:

Kevin O'Hare

Former Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal dancer and Royal Ballet Administrative Director Kevin O'Hare succeeded Monica Mason as Director of The Royal Ballet in August 2012. Administrative Director of the company since 2009, O'Hare retired from dancing in 2000 and subsequently worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and as Company Manager of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

This is a great honour for me. Under Monica Mason's inspired leadership The Royal Ballet has had a great ten years. I am equally ambitious for the Company and dance in general. I plan to bring together the most talented artists of the 21st century to collaborate on the same stage – world class dancers, choreographers, designers, and musicians. I will aim to use all the traditional and new platforms now available to engage our audiences in our classic repertoire, and The Royal Ballet's unique heritage. I want to continue to invigorate audiences with new work and emerging talents and I am thrilled that Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon – two of the world’s leading choreographers – have agreed to join me and Jeanetta Laurence, Associate Director to become part of the senior artistic team. Both Wayne and Christopher share my exciting ambitions for the Company." [19]

Royal Opera House, Manchester

In 2008 the Royal Opera House and Manchester City Council began the planning stages of a new development known as Royal Opera House, Manchester. The proposal would have seen the Palace Theatre in Manchester receiving an £80 million refurbishment, to allow it to receive productions by both the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera. The proposals would have established the Palace Theatre as a designated base for the Royal Opera House companies in the North of England. [20] [21] [22]

The proposals were approved by the then Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Andy Burnham MP, and was accepted by a number of public bodies. An independent report suggested that the cost of the project would be £100 million with another £16 million needed annually for running costs of the new site. [23] In 2010 it was announced that the project was being shelved as part of larger arts-funding cuts. [23] [24] [25]

Laurence Olivier Awards

The Royal Ballet company is a multiple Laurence Olivier Award winning company. The following is a complete list of awards won by the company and its staff since the awards were established in 1978. These include awards presented to the company for a production of a particular ballet, to individual dancers for their performance in a specific rôle, to designers for their work on a specific production and to other members of the Royal Ballet staff for achievements in dance.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ninette de Valois</span> Irish-born British dancer (1898–2001)

Dame Ninette de Valois was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, later establishing the Royal Ballet, one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century and one of the leading ballet companies in the world. She also established the Royal Ballet School and the touring company which became the Birmingham Royal Ballet. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of ballet and as the "godmother" of English and Irish ballet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Helpmann</span> Australian dancer, actor, theatre director and choreographer (1909–1986)

Sir Robert Murray Helpmann CBE was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet under its creator, Ninette de Valois. He became one of the company's leading men, partnering Alicia Markova and later Margot Fonteyn. When Frederick Ashton, the company's chief choreographer, was called up for military service in the Second World War, Helpmann took over from him while continuing as a principal dancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Ashton</span> British dancer and choreographer (1904–1988)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margot Fonteyn</span> English ballerina (1919–1991)

Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias DBE, known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn, was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed prima ballerina assoluta of the company by Queen Elizabeth II. Beginning ballet lessons at the age of four, she studied in England and China, where her father was transferred for his work. Her training in Shanghai was with Russian expatriate dancer Georgy Goncharov, contributing to her continuing interest in Russian ballet. Returning to London at the age of 14, she was invited to join the Vic-Wells Ballet School by Ninette de Valois. She succeeded Alicia Markova as prima ballerina of the company in 1935. The Vic-Wells choreographer, Sir Frederick Ashton, wrote numerous parts for Fonteyn and her partner, Robert Helpmann, with whom she danced from the 1930s to the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alicia Markova</span> British ballerina

Dame Alicia Markova DBE was a British ballerina and a choreographer, director and teacher of classical ballet. Most noted for her career with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and touring internationally, she was widely considered to be one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of the twentieth century. She was the first British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company and, with Dame Margot Fonteyn, is one of only two English dancers to be recognised as a prima ballerina assoluta. Markova was a founder dancer of the Rambert Dance Company, The Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, and was co-founder and director of the English National Ballet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Ballet School</span> Classical ballet training facility in London

The Royal Ballet School is a British school of classical ballet training founded in 1926 by the Anglo-Irish ballerina and choreographer Ninette de Valois. The school's aim is to train and educate outstanding classical ballet dancers, especially for the Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Rencher</span> British ballet dancer

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