Kenneth MacMillan Died 20 Years Ago

KENNETH MACMILLAN DIED 20 YEARS AGO Sex, death and jazz - a celebration of the ballet choreographer in all his moods

Sex, death and jazz - a celebration of the ballet choreographer in all his moods

It's 20 years since the death, backstage at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, of a man who scripted high-wire emotions and extreme psychological states in a theatrical language that had widely been held to be the realm of sweetness and majesty. The choreographer Kenneth MacMillan brought the values of modern theatre, cinema and the sexual revolution to ballet, and his narrative daring remains unequalled by any choreographer in Britain after him.

Viscera/Infra/Fool's Paradise, Royal Ballet

VISCERA/INFRA/FOOL'S PARADISE, ROYAL BALLET Two premieres and a revival make an invigoratingly sharp evening

Two premieres and a revival make an invigoratingly sharp evening

A new Liam Scarlett ballet has become an event, even as, in this case, Scarlett’s home company, the Royal Ballet, is recreating a work he choreographed last January for Miami City Ballet – the young choreographer’s first international commission.

Star young choreographer wins leading Royal Ballet role

STAR YOUNG CHOREOGRAPHER WINS LEADING ROYAL BALLET ROLE Liam Scarlett to quit dancing to focus on creating new ballets

Liam Scarlett to quit dancing to focus on creating new ballets

Liam Scarlett, the young dancer whose Jack the Ripper ballet, Sweet Violets, was one of the talking points of Covent Garden last season, has been appointed full-time Artist-in-Residence at the Royal Ballet, taking up the third place in a new creative triumvirate for the company.

The Composer and the Water-Nymph: Hans Werner Henze's Ondine

The German composer who died on Saturday was smitten by the magic of ballet

Hans Werner Henze, the composer who died on Saturday aged 86, wrote the music for one of Margot Fonteyn's signature ballets, Ondine, a ballet about an inhuman spirit who longs to be joined to a man - but when she does, he must die. It might almost be a metaphor for the death of the thought the moment it is realised.

Swan Lake in world's cinemas tonight launches new offensive on elitism

32 countries will hook up to Royal Opera House relays of opera and ballet

Tonight the Royal Ballet's live Swan Lake opens the most extensive season yet of live screenings to cinemas worldwide of the Royal Opera House's productions. Zenaida Yanowsky and Nehemiah Kish, in the leading roles of the Swan Queen and her evil counterpart Odile, and Prince Siegfried, will be beamed across oceans to cinema-goers in St Julians, Malta, to the Montevideo Moviecenter in Uruguay, as well as to the Apollo, Burnley and the Enfield Cineworld.

Swan Lake, Royal Ballet

SWAN LAKE Ex-Bolshoi prodigy Natalia Osipova makes her much-anticipated Royal Ballet debut

Ex-Bolshoi prodigy Natalia Osipova makes her much-anticipated Royal Ballet debut

The Royal Ballet’s autumn season began on Monday, but this was the eagerly awaited Swan Lake. Natalia Osipova, ex-Bolshoi, now principal with American Ballet Theater and the Mikhailovsky in St Petersburg, was making her debut as a guest with the Royal Ballet, partnered by Carlos Acosta.

Russian superstar Natalia Osipova to perform with Royal Ballet

Covent Garden invites Osipova to be Carlos Acosta's new Swan Queen

The virtuoso Russian ballerina Natalia Osipova will guest with the Royal Ballet this autumn with Carlos Acosta in the opening run of Swan Lake. Osipova, whose partnership with the phenomenal Ivan Vasiliev has become the most talked-about in world ballet, will dance the double role of Odette/Odile (the White Swan and Black Swan) on 10, 13 and 25 October with the RB's Cuban star Carlos Acosta, in place of Tamara Rojo, the ballerina who becomes English National Ballet's artistic director from September.

Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, The Royal Ballet

METAMORPHOSIS: TITIAN 2012: A cross-platform party of dance, music and art as Dame Monica signs off

A cross-platform party of dance, music and art as Dame Monica signs off

The bells ring out for creativity in the Royal Ballet’s final production under its outgoing director, Monica Mason, and the ambition at least of the enterprise is hugely to be cheered, even if asking seven choreographers to work together is on a hiding to nothing.

Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, National Gallery

METAMORPHOSIS: TITIAN 2012: Titian inspires three artists to produce new work plus costumes and sets for three new ballets

Titian inspires three artists to produce new work plus costumes and sets for three new ballets

Three paintings by Titian depicting stories from Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses welcome you to the National Gallery’s exhibition Metamorphosis: Titian 2012. Diana and Callisto shows Diana casting out the pregnant nymph Callisto from her company. Diana and Actaeon depicts the young Actaeon out hunting and stumbling into a sacred grotto where Diana and her nymphs are bathing; and in The Death of Actaeon, we see the goddess exacting vengeance on the intruder by turning him into a stag to be torn to pieces by his own hounds.