The Royal Ballet in Japan and Los Angeles – dates and casting

The Royal Ballet tours to Japan and Los Angeles this summer, presenting signature work from the Company's repertory, a world premiere by Wayne McGregor and community engagement projects.

Tokyo, Bunka Kaikan
Carlos Acosta's Don Quixote, 21 – 26 June

Yokohama, Kanagawa Kenwin Hall
Royal Ballet Gala, 29 – 30 June

Los Angeles, The Music Center Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling, 5 – 7 July
Thomas Adès and Wayne McGregor A Dance Collaboration, 12 – 13 July

This summer The Royal Ballet will tour to Japan and Los Angeles for the annual international tour. The Royal Ballet will perform in The Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo between 21 – 26 June, presenting Carlos Acosta's production of Don Quixote. The Company will also perform a special gala of signature works from the repertory at the Kanagawa Kenwin Hall, Yokohama on 29 and 30 June. After an absence of 24 years, the Company returns to LA with Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling from 5 – 12 July and a special collaboration between composer Thomas Adès and Royal Ballet Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor with Adès and McGregor: A Dance Collaboration.

Adès and McGregor: A Dance Collaboration includes two world premieres by Wayne McGregor, his latest work for The Royal Ballet, The Dante Project Part 1 (Inferno) and a new yet-to-be-named work for Company Wayne McGregor. Inferno is set to Adès' new score of the same name which premiered at The Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall in May, in a performance by the LA Phil conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. The music was commissioned by the LA Philharmonic and The Royal Ballet. Inferno is the first act of this new ballet; The Royal Ballet will present the full three-act ballet as a complete work at the Royal Opera House in London in May 2020.

The new work features set and costumes by artist Tacita Dean, renowned for her pioneering and poetic work across film and multiple mediums. The creative team for this work includes lighting design by Lucy Carter and Simon Bennison and dramaturgy by Uzma Hameed.

Co-commissioned by The Music Center and the LA Phil, McGregor's second new work for this program will be danced by Company Wayne McGregor and choreographed to Adès' In Seven Days, a seven-movement piece for piano and orchestra from 2008. Fascinated in how Artificial Intelligence might foster conversations about dance and the potential of choreographing through technology, McGregor is collaborating with the Google Arts & Culture Lab in Paris to develop “Living Archive”.

The “Living Archive” AI choreographic tool has been trained using hundreds of hours of video dance footage from McGregor's previous work. It then uses machine learning to generate entirely new movements and choreography in his style, creating a new “living” dialogue with his extensive archive. This piece will feature video installations designed by Ben Cullen Williams, who collaborated on the award-winning set and projection design for Company Wayne McGregor's Autobiography.

The Royal Ballet and Company Wayne McGregor will perform together in the West Coast premiere of McGregor's Outlier, which was choreographed to Adès' 2005 violin concerto, Concentric Paths. Outlier features Bauhaus-inspired design by McGregor and Lucy Carter (lighting design), and costumes by Moritz Junge. McGregor created Outlier, informed by the minimalist notions of simplicity and colour theory, for New York City Ballet's Architecture of Dance Festival in 2010.

As part of the tour, The Royal Ballet will engage with local dance schools and community groups. The Royal Ballet in partnership with Bunka Kaikan will host a series of Don Quixote themed workshops with a local deaf school in Tokyo and a school for people with disabilities in Kyoto.

In Los Angeles The Royal Ballet will work with students from Colburn School in an intensive two-day creative ballet project and deliver a masterclass in partnership with The Music Center for local dance schools, all themed around Mayerling. Royal Ballet artists will work with Los Angeles-based Straight Up Abilities, which provides dance opportunities to children and adults with intellectual or physical disabilities. Participants will engage in a week-long residency with The Royal Ballet exploring the themes from Wayne McGregor's new ballet, Inferno, culminating in a public performance at The Music Center.

Tokyo, Bunka Kaikan

Carlos Acosta's Don Quixote

Friday 21 June 2019, 18:30pm

Kitri – Marianela Nuñez
Basilio – Vadim Muntagirov
Mercedes – Laura Morera
Espada – Ryoichi Hirano
Queen of the Dryads – Fumi Kaneko

Saturday 22 June 2019, 13:00pm

Kitri – Mayara Magri
Basilio – Alexander Campbell
Mercedes – Itziar Mendizabel
Espada – Nicol Edmonds
Queen of the Dryads – Yuhui Choe

Saturday 22 June 2019, 18:00

Kitri – Yasmine Naghdi
Basilio – Marcelino Sambé
Mercedes – Laura Morera
Espada – Ryoichi Hirano
Queen of the Dryads – Fumi Kaneko

Sunday 23 June 2019, 13:00

Kitri – Lauren Cuthbertson
Basilio – Matthew Ball
Mercedes – Claire Calvert
Espada – Reece Clarke
Queen of the Dryads – Yuhui Choe

Tuesday 25 June 2019, 18:30

Kitri – Yasmine Naghdi
Basilio – Marcelino Sambé
Mercedes – Laura Morera
Espada – Ryoichi Hirano
Queen of the Dryads – Fumi Kaneko

Wednesday 26 June 2019, 18:30

Kitri – Natalia Osipova
Basilio – Vadim Muntagirov
Mercedes – Beatriz Stix-Brunell
Espada – Valentino Zucchetti
Queen of the Dryads – Claire Calvert

Orchestra Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra

Yokohama, Kanagawa Kenwin Hall, 29 – 30 June 14.00

Royal Ballet Gala

Orchestra Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra

LA, The Music Center Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling 5 – 7 July

Friday 5 July 7.30pm

Crown Prince Rudolf – Ryoichi Hirano
Baroness Mary Vetsera – Natalia Osipova
Countess Marie Larisch – Sarah Lamb
Empress Elizabeth – Kristen McNally
Princess Stephanie – Francesca Hayward
Mitzi – Marianela Nunez
Bratfisch – Alexander Campbell
Emperor Franz Josef – Christopher Sanders
Bay Middleton – Gary Avis

Saturday 6 July at 7.30pm

Crown Prince Rudolf – Matthew Ball
Baroness Mary Vetsera – Sarah Lamb
Countess Marie Larisch – Laura Morera
Empress Elizabeth – Itziar Mendizabal
Princess Stephanie – Meaghan Grace Hinkis
Mitzi – Mayara Magri
Bratfisch – James Hay
Emperor Franz Josef – Gary Avis
Bay Middleton – Nehemiah Kish

Sunday 7 July at 2pm

Crown Prince Rudolf – Thiago Soares
Baroness Mary Vetsera – Lauren Cuthbertson
Countess Marie Larisch – Itziar Mendizabal
Empress Elizabeth – Lara Turk
Princess Stephanie – Anna Rose O'Sullivan
Mitzi – Claire Calvert
Bratfisch – Paul Kay
Emperor Franz Josef – Alastair Marriott
Bay Middleton – Gary Avis

Adès & McGregor: A Dance Collaboration Part 1 (Inferno), July 12–13

Co-presentation by Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center and LA Phil
The Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Royal Ballet world premiere – The Dante Project (Inferno)

Inferno commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Music and Artistic Director; and The Royal Ballet, choreographer Wayne McGregor

Choreography – Wayne McGregor
Music – Thomas Adès' Inferno
Design – Tacita Dean
Lighting Design – Lucy Carter and Simon Bennison
Dramaturgy – Uzma Hameed
Dancers – The Royal Ballet
Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Thomas Adès

Casting TBC

Company Wayne McGregor world premiere – New work by Wayne McGregor

Choreography co-commissioned by The Music Center and Los Angeles Philharmonic

In Seven Days music commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic, 2008

Produced by – Studio Wayne McGregor
Direction – Wayne McGregor
Choreography – Wayne McGregor, in collaboration with the dancers
Music – Thomas Adès' In Seven Days
Video Installation – Ben Cullen Williams
Lighting Consultant – Lucy Carter
Dancers – Company Wayne McGregor
AI choreography tool developed in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab
Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Thomas Adès

Outlier

West Coast premiere

Choreography – Wayne McGregor
Music – Thomas Adès' Concentric Paths
Set Design – Wayne McGregor and Lucy Carter
Lighting Design – Lucy Carter, recreated by Simon Bennison
Costume Design – Moritz Junge
Dancers – Company Wayne McGregor and dancers from The Royal Ballet
Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Thomas Adès

Casting TBC

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.