Marianela Nuñez leads out the Royal Ballet for their American tour

The Royal Ballet returns to the USA in June 2015 with programmes that reflect both the company’s heritage and its contemporary repertoire. It also brings with it the extraordinary lineup of dancers that make up the Royal Ballet today. Aside from the Brits – Lauren Cuthbertson, Rupert Pennefather and Edward Watson – there are the Americans, Sarah Lamb and Nehemiah Kish; the Australians, Steven McRae and Alexander Campbell; the Russians, Natalia Osipova and Vadim Muntagirov; the Cuban, Carlos Acosta; the Ukrainian, Iana Salenko; the Italian, Federico Bonelli; the Spaniard, Laura Morera; the Japanese, Akane Takada; the Brazilian, Roberta Marquez; the Canadian, Matthew Golding… the United Nations of Dance. There is, of course, also the Argentinian, Marianela Nuñez, one of the company’s biggest and brightest stars.

I am really looking forward to dancing in America again. The audiences are very warm and every time I have performed there, I have had such a wonderful reception,

she told me.

It is Nuñez who gets the ball rolling when she and Acosta perform his Don Quixote at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC on 9 June. Acosta’s version of the ballet was premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2013. Designs are by Tony Award-winning Tim Hatley and Minkus’ score has been arranged and orchestrated by Royal Ballet Conductor Martin Yates. Nuñez is delighted that it is this title to open the American tour:

Don Quixote is a very special ballet to me for many reasons. The Act 3 pas de deux was the first pas de deux I danced professionally which was when I was 14 with Teatro Colón Company. It was also the ballet when I got promoted to Principal at 20, when I was also dancing with Carlos, in 2002.

So when Carlos created his Don Quixote, and we danced together on the first night ever, it was a wonderful feeling. I have a lot of fun dancing Kitri and I love every second of this ballet and this production.

The Don Quixote performances will be in Washington and at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. However, the Royal ballet will bring to New York creations by their three resident choreographers – Wayne McGregor, Christopher Wheeldon and Liam Scarlett – as well as ballets by choreographers Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan whose contribution the repertoire and reputation of the company is inestimable.

In the week at The David H. Koch Theater, Nuñez and Acosta will again share the stage for MacMillan’s 1965 ballet Song of the Earth.

Dancing with Carlos is always a very special occasion. I love dancing with him, the man has talent, energy and generosity coming out of him at all times.

We also have a great time working together in the studio, so that makes it all even better. By the time we get to the stage, we have real fun….

I feel lucky I have shared the stage with him. He is a remarkable artist… Unique! I adore him and adore dancing with him.

Song of the Earth will conclude a programme that opens with Ashton’s The Dream. It was sixty years ago, in April 1965, that New York first saw this classic (which has now entered the American Ballet Theatre’s repertoire) when Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell danced the roles they had created in London the previous year.

The second programme is a mixed bill with Infra by Wayne McGregor, The Age of Anxiety by Liam Scarlett, and highlights from The Royal Ballet’s repertory including the central pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s Aeturnum.

Infra has music by Max Richter who created the haunting score for McGregor’s Woolf Works, the much-acclaimed latest hit from the Royal Ballet. Scarlett’s The Age of Anxiety, which was first seen in London at the end of last year, is appropriately set in New York, in the 1940s during the war years. It is set to Leonard Bernstein’s glorious Symphony No. 2, entitled The Age of Anxiety, which he composed in New York at the end of the ‘40s.

Twenty performances in all will allow the Royal Ballet to show off some of the many important works it has contributed to the ballet canon, and its current artistic talent.

I love going on tour with The Royal Ballet – says Nuñez – I feel proud to represent my company every time we go away. Wherever we go, it is always a great feeling… but I also love returning back home to The Royal Opera House and our audiences.

I feel so lucky to have the chance to experience all these feelings and perform to so many different audiences. Dreams do come true!

The Kennedy Center, Washington, Tues 9 June – Sun 14 June

Don Quixote

Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Thurs 18 June – Sun 21 June

Don Quixote

The David H. Koch Theater, NY Tues 23 June – Sun 28 June

Gala Performance in aid of The Royal Ballet and The Joyce Theater

Programme 1

Programme 2

Gramilano Editor

Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.