Melissa Hamilton will curate a Night of Ballet this summer at Grange Park Opera.
The Royal Ballet Principal will produce the first performance in England by Hamilton Christou Productions, following sold-out productions in Belfast and Singapore, on Thursday 9 July.
Hamilton will be joined on stage by dancers from English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, New English Ballet Theatre and the contemporary dance company PCK Dance.
The evening’s programme will feature performances of classics as well as contemporary and neoclassical works, with solos and pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty Act III, Giselle Act II, Swan Lake, Les Bourgeois, The Dying Swan, La Luna and a new collaborative creation by PCK Dance with Melissa Hamilton.
Dancers taking part include Lead Principals of English National Ballet Emma Hawes and Aitor Arrieta, International Principal Dancer Alejandro Virelles, First Soloists at Birmingham Royal Ballet Katherine Ochoa and Enrique Bejarano Vidal, PCK Dance – James Pett and Travis Clausen-Knight, dancers from New English Ballet Theatre, as well as Hamilton herself.
Hamilton Christou Productions is a husband-and-wife enterprise from Michael Christou and Melissa Hamilton with a mission “to break down the barriers to ballet, fostering an inclusive global community for both dance enthusiasts and those new to the art form”.
Future performances from Hamilton Christou Productions include Melissa Hamilton’s Ballet Stars Gala at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin on 9 May and Melissa Hamilton’s Grand Ballet Gala at the Grand Opera House, Belfast from 8 – 10 October.
A Night of Ballet
Part I
Barre by Valentino Zucchetti
Performed by Melissa Hamilton, James Pett, Travis Clausen-Knight
Sleeping Beauty Act III (pas de deux)
Performed by Emma Hawes and Aitor Arrieta
Nexus (solo)
Performed by Katherine Ochoa
Fire and Ice
Performed by New English Ballet Theatre
The Dying Swan (solo) by Mikhail Fokine
Performed by Melissa Hamilton
Don Quixote Act III (pas de deux)
Performed by Katherine Ochoa and Enrique Bejarano Vidal
Lightness of Being by Craig Davidson
Performed by Melissa Hamilton and Alejandro Virelles
Part II
Giselle Act II (pas de deux)
Performed by Melissa Hamilton and Alejandro Virelles
Les Bourgeois (solo)by Ben van Cauwenbergh
Performed by Enrique Bejarano Vidal
Fire and Ice
Performed by New English Ballet Theatre
La Luna (solo) by Maurice Berjart
Performed by Melissa Hamilton
Black Swan (pas de deux)
Performed by Emma Hawes and Aitor Arrieta
New Creation by PCK Dance with Melissa Hamilton
Performed by Melissa Hamilton, James Pett, Travis Clausen-Knight
Grand Finale
Performed by the dancers of A Night of Ballet
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.