Created by Frederick Ashton for a film in 1971, and brought to the stage in a production by Anthony Dowell in 1992, Tales of Beatrix Potter brings alive, with rich characterisation and invention, the famous images and stories of Beatrix Potter. John Lanchbery's music (incorporating mostly forgotten Victorian melodies) is utterly captivating, inspiring spirited playing from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Paul Murphy. Christine Edzard's designs conjure up a lost England of field mice and Berkshire black pigs, of foxgloves and shady groves. Swept up in the ballet's childlike exuberance, the entire cast delivers outstanding portrayals of such colourful figures as Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mr Jeremy Fisher, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and the irrepressible Peter Rabbit. Frederick Ashton's warm and witty, yet demanding, choreography creates a piece of charm and grace for all ages.

In Tales of Beatrix Potter, a ballet for all ages at the ROH, Peter Rabbit and other beloved characters from the celebrated author come to life

Frederick Ashton's Tales of Beatrix Potter

Choreographer Silas Farley's piece, Dowland Dances, draws inspiration from the idea that art can transcend history, evolving and moving forward while drawing inspiration from the past. 

The piece is set to Sting’s rendition of music by the English Renaissance composer John Dowland. Farley was intrigued by the idea that Dowland, a pop star of his own generation, has inspired and lived on through a contemporary pop star like Sting. Farley has similarly drawn inspiration from ballet’s long history, mixing the old with the new, to create this unique piece.

Choreographer Silas Farley's piece, Dowland Dances, draws inspiration from the idea that art can transcend history.

Dowland Dances

Christian Spuck’s production has been celebrated not only in Zurich, but also at guest performances given by the Ballett Zürich in Tel Aviv, Bogotá and Stuttgart. Inspired by Prokofiev’s vivid music and the timeless quality of Shakespeare’s tragedy, the choreographer narrates the most famous love story in world literature using strong images that are full of enthralling theatricality and touching emotion.

Christian Spuck’s production has been celebrated in Zurich, but also performances given by the Ballett Zürich in Tel Aviv, Bogotá and Stuttgart.

Romeo und Julia

Lauren Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov lead a charismatic cast in Ashton’s poignant and heart-warming reflection on love, The Two Pigeons, based on an old French folktale and first performed on Valentine’s Day 1961 and not seen at the Royal Opera House since 1985, In his story of a wayward young man blind to the value of what is right in front him, Ashton explores the nature of love in one of his most charming, elegant and moving works.

Lauren Cuthbertson and Vadim Muntagirov lead the cast in Ashton’s poignant and heart-warming reflection on love, The Two Pigeons

Two Pigeons

City of a Thousand Trades is a moving love letter to Birmingham, choreographed by Miguel Altunga for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. 

This inspiring dedication to the UK’s industrial West Midlands city was commissioned by Birmingham Royal Ballet’s director Carlos Acosta to celebrate the city’s diverse cultural and industrial heritage. Co-directed by Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s Madeleine Kludje, this dance piece is set to an original score by Mathias Coppen that features a live band playing on a platform on stage. The score weaves classical music with the explosive percussion of Heavy Metal riffs, paying homage to Birmingham’s legacy as the birthplace of heavy metal. 

In City of a Thousand Trades, 12 dancers create moody vignettes of the city’s history overlayed with the words of Birmingham’s poet laureate Casey Bailey. Dancers carry large metal poles, move masses of concrete, tell stories of the city’s residents, and bring to life both the triumphs and tribulations of their beloved city.

City of a Thousand Trades is a moving love letter to Birmingham, choreographed by Miguel Altunga for the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

City of a Thousand Trades

The father of the American Ballet, George Balanchine, once studied with the world renowned Mariinsky Ballet in St Petersburg. 

Though Jewels, an original piece of work by Balanchine, had its premiere in New York, it has since become a core part of the Mariinsky Theatre’s repertoire. 

This production stars Ulyana Lopatkina, Igor Zelensky and Andrian Fadeyev.

The world-renowned Mariinsky Ballet presents an unmissable performance of George Balanchine’s Jewels.

Jewels

PLACE is a sensational dance film, especially created for world-famous dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov & Ana Laguna by an outstanding international team of artists, including legendary choreographer Mats Ek, and Grammy, Cannes award-winning director, Jonas Akerlund.

PLACE is a sensational dance film, especially created for world-famous dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov & Ana Laguna.

Place

“Rejoice, exult” – John Neumeier turns Bach’s Christmas Oratorio into an experience that confronts us all with the most basic questions of trust, hope, faith, doubt and self-sacrifice: “My choreography is not a religious undertaking. We perform to Bach’s music, for a few hours unifying individuals of many different cultural and religious backgrounds. For me, the basic human values expressed through the choreography are always the most important thing."

John Neumeier's Bach’s Christmas Oratorio confronts us with basic questions of trust, hope, faith, doubt and self-sacrifice

Christmas Oratorio

A Film adaptation of The Lost Happy Endings written by Carol Ann Duffy and originally directed for the stage by balletLORENT’s Artistic Director Liv Lorent (MBE). Filmed at Newcastle Theatre Royal in October 2020. What happens when the fairytale Happy Endings are stolen? Deep in the forest lives Jub, a magical girl with six fingers on each hand. Her job is to guard the Happy Endings to stories and fairytales. But one day an otherworldly Witch steals them, and at bedtime the stories are destroyed...Packed with spirit, adventure and glorious surprises, this fantasy family show featuring everyone’s favourite fairytale characters (Snow White; Pinocchio; Goldilocks and Cinderella to name but a few), will delight generations both old and young. Original score composed and performed by Murray Gold (Doctor Who) with set design by Neil Murray, costume design by Nasir Mazhar and narrated by Joanna Lumley. Filmed and directed for the screen by Vilte Bacliunaite and Game of Throne’s Ben Crompton.

A Film adaptation of The Lost Happy Endings written by Carol Ann Duffy and originally directed for the stage by Artistic Director Liv Lorent.

The Lost Happy Endings

Choreographer Dana Genshaft's work ‘All the Little Boxes’ pulls on the elements of movement, music, lighting and costume design to create a ‘world’ on stage in which the characters of the work are confined to their own personal bubbles or boxes. Each character is focused on their own task, boundaries and personal dramas. The piece is a non-narrative work with a strong emotional arc that brings the dancers out of their isolated and rigid mechanical patterns into a brighter and more hopeful shared space. The balletic movement language likewise plays with the juxtaposition between human and mechanistic qualities. The tone swings from spaces that feel empty to ones that are charged and full of emotions.

Choreographer Dana Genshaft's work creates a ‘world’ on stage in which the characters are confined to their own personal bubbles or boxes.

All the Little Boxes

In the fall of 2017, we meet Hedda Gabler on the main stage of the Norwegian State Opera. She is one of the most famous dramatic characters in the world, an icon created by Henrik Ibsen. The play of a deep psychology is transformed into a ballet, created by the stage director Marit Moum Aune on the music by Nils Petter Molvær. Hedda is furious because her disappointment is gnawing. The honeymoon in Europe is behind her, and now she has returned home with her husband, Jorgen. Nothing was as she had thought. And when her former lover, Eilert Loevborg, emerges, she reacts in a dangerous way for everyone, including herself. It is for the second time that the renowned stage director, Marit Moum Aune, transforms the play of Ibsen into a ballet. She staged Ghosts by Ibsen with Cina Espejord. This ballet has become one of the greatest successes of the National 
Ballet of Norway.

The play of a deep psychology is transformed into a ballet, created by the stage director Marit Moum Aune on the music by Nils Petter Molvær.

Hedda Gabler

Maurice Béjart’s compelling staging of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been enchanting audiences worldwide since its
inception and its idea of universal brotherhood remains highly topical. “Alle Menschen werden Brüder” (All men will be
brothers) is the powerful message communicated by the unforgettable music and choreography.
From the stage of the NHK Hall in Tokyo 250 dancers and musicians send this message out into the world. “It is a ‘manifestation’,
in the deepest sense of the word.” This performance was filmed in November 2014, and is the first recording of this work.

Maurice Béjart’s compelling staging of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been enchanting audiences worldwide since its inception.

The Ninth Symphony by Maurice Bejart

Newcastle-based balletLORENT filmed Rumpelstiltskin at Northern Stage, Newcastle, in October 2017, before touring the UK to much acclaim and success. Liv Lorent, Director and Choreographer balletLORENT, said: “Rumpelstiltskin is the story of the outsider, shunned for being different, and the secret power and knowledge he possesses. He is the original super mutant, a fairytale X-Man in a story of love, obsession, childhood, grief and reconciliation that is made as much for children as it is for adults.”

Newcastle-based balletLORENT filmed Rumpelstiltskin at Northern Stage, Newcastle, in October 2017.

Rumpelstiltskin

Marguerite and Armand is Ashton’s beautiful and emotional retelling of a well-known story, familiar to us through Verdi’s opera La traviata. Ashton famously created this poignant ballet on Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in 1963, and here it is performed by guest Roberto Bolle and in her farewell performance, Zenaida Yanowsky.

Performed by guest Roberto Bolle and in her farewell performance, Zenaida Yanowsky, Ashton's Marguerite and Armand retells the opera La Traviata.

Marguerite and Armand

MacMillan’s spectacular ensemble scenes for the whole Company create vivid, complex portraits of the distinct societies of Paris and New Orleans. But it is Manon and Des Grieux’s impassioned pas de deux – recalling the intensity of MacMillan’s earlier Romeo and Juliet – that drive this tragic story, and make Manon one of MacMillan’s most powerful dramas.

MacMillan found new sympathy with the capricious Manon and her struggle to escape poverty in this production.

Manon

Sensual and entrancing, Kylián's Wings of Wax is an allegorical journey danced beneath the branches of an inverted tree to a hauntingly beautiful score of selections by musical giants Philip Glass, Heinrich von Biber, John Cage, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Kylián's Wings of Wax is an allegorical journey danced beneath the branches of an inverted tree to a hauntingly beautiful score.

Wings of Wax

Angelin Preljocaj was born into a family of Albanian immigrants in 1957 and received a solid training as a dancer in France before taking part in a course with Merce Cunningham in New York in 1980. His themes of love, war and labour are perennial human themes enriched by his carefully observed details from everyday life with a dance vocabulary strongly oriented towards physicality and sensuality. His own company, Ballet Preljocaj, resides at the Pavillon Noir in Aix-en-Provence, a building entirely dedicated to dance with Angelin Preljocaj its artistic director. His company is touring worldwide and gives about one hundred performances per year. His ballets SPECTRAL EVIDENCE and LA STRAVAGANZA were both conceived for the New York City Ballet.

SPECTRAL EVIDENCE: From 2013 to music by John Cage is based on the Salem Witch Trials and a recording of vocal music by John Cage. It has four men in dark suits and clerical collars and four women in white dresses with different patches of red silicon.

LA STRAVAGANZA: From 1997 to music by Vivaldi, Evelyn Ficarra, Serge Morand, Robert Marmandeau and Åke Parmerud deals with Contemporary Culture meeting 17th century society. Dancing to Vivaldi and electronic music we experience a merger of fantasy and reality, a dialogue of the past with the present, the old world with the new world.

Angelin Preljocaj's themes of love, war and labour are enriched with a dance vocabulary oriented towards physicality and sensuality.

Ravel by Cherkaoui & Verbruggen

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