Photo Album: first look at The Royal Ballet’s MacMillan triple bill
British choreographer Kenneth MacMillan transformed ballet, through an extraordinary career that expanded the boundaries of the art form. To mark the 25th anniversary of his death The Royal Ballet celebrates his remarkable work with three mixed programmes that bring together the UK’s five leading ballet companies in Kenneth MacMillan: a National Celebration.
In the first of these programmes, all five companies come together in a programme that pairs two of MacMillan’s sunniest ballets with a new production of his dark, classical fairytale.
Birmingham Royal Ballet dances Concerto. It was created in 1966 for Berlin Ballet and quickly became a staple of the British repertory. Like Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto to which it is set, the piece pays tribute to both the talent and the discipline of the artist.
Scottish Ballet presents a new production of Le Baiser de la fée (The Fairy’s Kiss), MacMillan’s 1960 setting of Stravinsky’s original ballet score. Like Stravinsky before him, MacMillan pays homage to classical ballet in virtuoso steps, but cast in his own dark and psychologically penetrating style.
Finally, Elite Syncopations from 1974 is danced by dancers from BRB, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, The Royal Ballet and Scottish Ballet, all revelling in the rhythmic strut of the ballet’s joyous ragtime score.
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 Italian ballerina 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.
