Kevin O’Hare’s first season as the Director of the Royal Ballet brings 6 world premières to The Royal Ballet’s repertoire. The artistic team has been bolstered by appointing Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor to the new titles of Artistic Associates.
Alexei Ratmansky, Artist in Residence with American Ballet Theatre, has been commissioned to write his first short work for The Royal Ballet which will debut in a programme of mixed works alongside another world première, this time by Wheeldon and Balanchine’s Apollo. Wheeldon’s popular full-length work Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will return for a third year and a work created in 2007 for Morphoses, Fool’s Paradise, will also be performed.
Wayne McGregor has been commissioned to write a new narrative work, Raven Girl, to premiere in May alongside Balanchine’s Symphony in C and another world première, by Alastair Marriott.
The season will open with the perennial favourite Swan Lake, choreographed by Anthony Dowell, while The Nutcracker will provide family entertainment in December. Natalia Makarova’s choreography of La Bayadère returns in April 2013 with 11 performances.
The 20th and 25th anniversaries of the deaths of Kenneth MacMillan and Frederick Ashton couldn’t go unmarked in view of their enormous influence on The Royal Ballet. One programme of mixed works will commemorate each of these celebrated men as well as MacMillan’s full-length work Mayerling, which can be seen in April.
Liam Scarlett, The Royal Ballet’s First Artist, will bring two new pieces to the Company: Viscera (created for Miami City Ballet in January 2012) and then a new piece, his first narrative work, which will première in Linbury Studio in May.
