Early April saw the Royal Ballet announce its plans for the 2016/17 season, garnering support from the UK ballet and dance press as the programming moves further in the direction of choreographic equality. The new season will include four world premieres, and the return of dance legends Leanne Benjamin and Viviana Durante to coach Mayerling and Anastasia respectively.
The announcement marks 70 years since the company reopened the Royal Opera House, however it seems the organisation is moving further into the twenty-first century with the new programming. Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite will receive a commission to create a new work for the company, the first female choreographer to do so since Siobhan Davies back in the twentieth century, and Dame Ninette de Valois and Bronislava Nijinska before that.
Darcey Bussell will return to coach dancers on the Aud Jebsen Young Dancer Programme, and Liam Scarlett will also produce a new one act ballet in 2017, bringing old faces back into the fray. The season will also see the return of Woolf Works to the stage, following its recent Olivier Award success. Past Principal Mara Galeazzi returns also, sharing the lead role with ballerina Alessandra Ferri. Carbon Life will also return as part of the 10th Anniversary celebrations of Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor.
Additional revivals throughout the season will include Kenneth MacMillan’s The Sleeping Beauty, as well as Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain and Strapless. Founder choreographer Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardee will also return, with Principal Roberta Marquez returning as Guest Artist. Ashton’s The Dream, Symphonic Variations and Marguerite and Armand will appear too, and George Balanchine’s Jewels will also make an appearance at the Royal Opera House. This marks 50 years since its New York appearance, and his pas de deux Tarantella will become company repertoire for the first time.