Kevin O’Hare faces the possibility of ever more complicated cast changes on the Covent Garden stage when filming of the adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s stage musical musical Cats begins as another Royal Ballet dancer is chosen for the movie cast. Soloist Olivia Cowley will be joining her colleagues Francesca Hayward and Steven McRae…
Steven McRae, Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, is to join the cast of Universal Pictures and Working Title’s film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl). Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O’Hare says, It’s really exciting that Steven is…
Francesca Hayward, Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, has joined the cast of the film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, which will be directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables, The Danish Girl). The film has an exceptionally starry cast with Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy (played by a…
Kenneth MacMillan‘s darkly dramatic masterpiece, Mayerling, opens The Royal Ballet‘s 2018/19 Season. Featuring one of the most technically demanding male roles in classical ballet, Mayerling is based on the true story of the deaths of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his teenage mistress Mary Vetsera which shocked the world in 1889. Kevin O’Hare, Director…
Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, has announced that Matthew Ball has been promoted to Principal Dancer. He said, I’m delighted that Matthew Ball will be a Principal dancer from the start of the 2018/19 Season. He has had a tremendous year with very exciting debuts in both classical and contemporary ballets across the…
A tweet from Peter Land on Dame Gillian Lynne’s account on Sunday evening, 1 July, announced that the beloved choreographer had died – she was 92: Rest In Peace my darling Gillie. I am heartbroken to write that Dame Gillian Lynne DBE & my dearest wife & friend & love for 40 years passed away…
Mid-way through the first act, taking off for a jump, I felt a pop in my calf, and from then on a sharp pain inflicted by just stepping on it. I finished the act through sheer grit of determination but knew in my gut I couldn’t possibly continue. I am shattered and heartbroken… In an…
Francesca Hayward and Alexander Campbell are quickly becoming The Royal Ballet‘s ‘couple to see’. After recent successes dancing Clara and the Nutcracker, as well as the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince, over the Christmas season, they have just debuted in Giselle. An important moment in the career of any dancer. The Guardian said that…
Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet said, Cesar approached me in October, having resigned from English National Ballet, about joining The Royal Ballet. I was happy to be in a position to be able to offer him a contract as a First Soloist from the beginning of the 2018/19 Season and I look forward…
New work is as central to the repertory of The Royal Ballet as revivals of the classics. For Director of The Royal Ballet Kevin O’Hare, contemporary choreographers and dancers are ‘creating the classics of the 21st century’. In this mixed programme, O’Hare invites two choreographers to create new works for the Company – one making…
After more than a decade with Birmingham Royal Ballet, Principal Dancer Joseph Caley has packed his bags and headed south to join Tamara Rojo and English National Ballet. In July, when his move was announced, he said, “The diversity of repertoire that Tamara has brought to the Company is really interesting and I can’t wait…
After 23 years with The Royal Ballet, last night Zenaida Yanowsky gave her final curtain call on the Covent Garden stage. Her final performance at the Royal Opera House was in Marguerite and Armand where she danced alongside Roberto Bolle. Her last performance with the Company, however, will be in Australia in July, performing Paulina in The…
After four days of intensive classes, 20 candidates have qualified for the finals of the Prix de Lausanne competition. 66 candidates from all over the world have attended daily classes, coaching, and rehearsals with some of the top names in ballet. Their potential was not only assessed by considering their technical ability, but also their…
The jury of Prix de Lausanne 2017 is composed of nine major personalities from the dance world, presided over by the Royal Ballet‘s Director, Kevin O’Hare. O’Hare said, The Prix de Lausanne is a wonderful opportunity for me to see the talented dancers of tomorrow. I see it as more than a competition; it is…
Last night The Royal Ballet dedicated the performance of The Nutcracker to its choreographer Sir Peter Wright who tomorrow, 25 November,celebrates his 90th birthday. His production of the Christmas favourite is the most performed production that the Company has in its repertoire. His other production for The Royal Ballet, Giselle, is another of the most popular works…
Is it time for quotas? This was one of many questions discussed at a Dance Umbrella debate, part of the Big Dance 2016 events, at the beginning of this month. The subject of gender inequality in choreography has been stirring up a lot of press in recent months. During a panel discussion in October last…
Alexander Campbell, Francesca Hayward, Ryoichi Hirano and Akane Takada have been promoted to Principal, the Company’s highest rank. Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, said, I am delighted to promote these four talented members of the Company to the rank of Principal following their wonderful work with The Royal Ballet this Season. Alexander, Francesca, Ryoichi…
The Royal Ballet will tour to Japan this summer with Romeo and Juliet and Giselle, two iconic productions from the company’s repertory. The tour will take in five cities from Thursday 16 June to Wednesday 6 July: Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuyama. The The Royal Ballet visited Japan for the first time in 1975, but was there three…
Not many critics go back as far as the Financial Times‘s Clement Crisp, so his saying that The Royal Ballet‘s new Frankenstein is, …a balletic evening as bizarre as any I have known at Covent Garden since the theatre reopened in 1946, is quite a statement! Most critics were slightly confused by the operation, leaving…
All the details of the 2016-2017 Ballet Season at London’s Royal Opera House: skip to section: ROYAL BALLET 2016-2017 SEASON – IN BRIEF THE ROYAL OPERA 2016-2017 SEASON THE ROYAL OPERA SEASON 2016-2017 – IN FULL ROYAL BALLET 2016-2017 SEASON – IN BRIEF Four World Premieres New one-act ballet from Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor to a…
Christopher Wheeldon‘s new ballet Strapless, which receives its world premiere in London tonight, is part of an all Wheeldon mixed programme which also includes After the Rain and Within the Golden Hour. The Bolshoi will stage the same programme in 2017! Kevin O’Hare, the Director of The Royal Ballet said, Given our close association with the…
Rick Guest is a photographer who’s highly polished style has led him to work with some of the biggest international brand names – Nike, Ferrari, BMV – yet he fell into photography by chance. I was between jobs and had a friend who was a model booker. She had some new guys starting out and…
Yasmine Naghdi was born on 25 March 1992 in London: Everyone I meet says, ‘Where are you from?’, and I say, ‘I’m from London’, and they say, ‘No, where are you really from?’.
1 October 2015 is the date for this year’s World Ballet Day live stream. Following last year’s unprecedented collaboration for the first World Ballet Day LIVE, five of the world’s leading ballet companies will once again stream 23 hours of live, behind-the-scenes footage on Thursday, 1 October. The Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, The…
This is an exciting time for The Royal Ballet, which has been on a roll for several years with an enthusiastic public for the sold-out performances at the Royal Opera House, the extremely popular live cinema relays, and the streamed events on the internet.
Carlos Acosta at The Royal Ballet is a new book to celebrate Carlos Acosta’s 17 year career with The Royal Ballet from 1998 – 2015. The book, which captures some of his greatest performances as well as intimate behind-the-scenes moments, is published by Oberon Books and will be released in November 2015. It contains over 150 images…
Four World Premières feature in the line-up for the Royal Ballet‘s 2015 – 2016 Season and, for the first time, all three of The Royal Ballet’s associated choreographers present new works for the main stage. Liam Scarlett will choreograph his first full-length ballet for Covent Garden’s main stage based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon will create…
The new ballet by Hofesh Shechter for The Royal Ballet, which can be seen from 27 March until 14 April with Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments and MacMillan’s Song of the Earth, still has no title, but it will feature the entire company. Shechter, who is renowned for his unique style of contemporary dance, is creating his first…
Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg have announced they will leave The Royal Ballet at the end of the 2012/13 season to pursue other artistic challenges. Their last performance at the Royal Opera House as members of The Royal Ballet will be in Mayerling on 5 June. They will then go to Tokyo with the company as planned and…
The Royal Opera House in London has announced the appointment of Alex Beard as its new Chief Executive. After having lost Tony Hall to the BBC there has been a long and thorough search for a worthy replacement. Beard said, I’m absolutely delighted to have been appointed Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House. To have…
End of content
End of content