Royal Ballet pairs Robbins and MacMillan in its autumn Visionaries programme
Melissa Hamilton, Matthew Ball, William Bracewell and Patricio Revé make role debuts in MacMillan’s Song of the Earth, unseen at Covent Garden since 2015, while eight Principals debut in Dances at a Gathering
The Royal Ballet‘s upcoming mixed bill brings together two of the company’s signature abstract works. Visionaries: Robbins and MacMillan runs at the Royal Opera House from 9 to 28 November 2026. It pairs Jerome Robbins’s Dances at a Gathering with Kenneth MacMillan‘s Song of the Earth, and the company describes the programme as a celebration of humanity, community and connection. The two ballets are well matched: one is buoyant, the other meditative.
Chopin and a kaleidoscope of moods
Dances at a Gathering was Robbins’s first new work for New York City Ballet on his return in 1969. It is a sequence of plotless dances set to some of Chopin’s most familiar piano pieces, and each dance is a small portrait of connection as the mood shifts from one to the next. MacMillan, then the Royal Ballet’s director, brought it into the repertory in 1970. That first London cast included Monica Mason, Lynn Seymour, Antoinette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, Rudolf Nureyev and David Wall.
This revival has a large number of debuts. Some of the dancers are new to the ballet altogether, and others are new to their particular roles. They include the Principals Francesca Hayward, Sarah Lamb, Fumi Kaneko, Yasmine Naghdi, Akane Takada, Cesar Corrales, Vadim Muntagirov and Joseph Sissens.
Mahler and the transience of life
Song of the Earth was last danced by the company in 2015. MacMillan set it to Mahler’s symphonic song cycle ‘Das Lied von der Erde’, and his elegiac, earthbound choreography follows the score’s reflections on the brevity of life and the nearness of death. Both composer and choreographer drew on eighth-century Chinese poetry. MacMillan made the ballet for Stuttgart Ballet in 1965, after the Royal Opera House board had turned down the idea of setting Mahler to dance. It came to Covent Garden a year later with guest artist Marcia Haydée alongside Royal Ballet Principals Donald MacLeary and Anthony Dowell.
The debuts in this revival are Melissa Hamilton, Matthew Ball, William Bracewell and Patricio Revé; also taking on roles in the ballet for the first time are Giacomo Rovero and Lukas B. Brændsrød.
Tickets
The Royal Ballet
VISIONARIES: ROBBINS AND MACMILLAN
Main Stage
9 – 28 November 2026
Dances at a Gathering
Choreography Jerome Robbins
Music Fryderyk Chopin
Costume Designer Joe Eula
Lighting Designer Jennifer Tipton
Song of the Earth
Choreography Kenneth Macmillan
Music Gustav Mahler
Text from Hans Bethge’s The Chinese Flute
Designer Nicholas Georgiadis
Lighting Designer Jacopo Pantani
Conductor Koen Kessels
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Tickets: £7 – £152
For more information, and to book, visit: Visionaries: Robbins and MacMillan
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.
