Royal Ballet, London

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Poster for the Royal Ballet performance of Swan Lake at the Lyric Theatre in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Australia

The Royal Ballet is based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England, and is the leading ballet company in the United Kingdom. It conducts regular international tours.

Under its original name, the Vic-Wells Ballet, it was founded by Dame Ninette de Valois in 1931 and performed at the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells Theatres until 1946. By then it had been renamed The Sadler's Wells Ballet and, at that time, de Valois was invited to bring the company to the ROH as the permanent ballet company of the newly-founded opera and ballet troupe under the direction of David Webster.

On November 20th 1946 The Sadler's Wells Ballet reopened The Royal Opera House with a performance of The Sleeping Beauty.

By 1957 the company had been granted the title of "The Royal Ballet".

In 1962 de Valois invited Rudolf Nureyev to join the company as a guest. He was to form the great partnership with Margot Fonteyn.

In 1963 Frederick Ashton became Artistic Director. Kenneth Macmillan unexpectedly replaced him in 1970. Norman Morrice became Director in 1977.

August 4th 1980 saw the premiere of Rhapsody. This was the last of Frederick Ashtons big ballets. It was a masterly conclusion to 50 years of a long series of pure dance works.

In 1986 the Directorship passed to Anthony Dowell. In 2001 Ross Stretton was appointed Director. In 2002 Monica Mason became the seventh Artistic Director of The Royal Ballet.

Swan Lake has been in the Royal Ballets repertory since 1932. Act II alone was performed on 5th October 1932. Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin staged and stared in this first production. The first full production was performed on the 20th November 1934. Markova was Odette/Odile and Robert Helpman was Siegfried. In 1943 Leslie Hurry provided designs for a new production . These designs were revised for a production by Ninnette de Valois in 1952. Beryl Grey and John Field led the first cast in this production. In December 1963 Margot Fonteyn lead the cast in a new production which featured additional choreography by Frederick Ashton including the whole final act.

One firm favourite of the Royal ballet has been Coppelia. A version of it was first produced in 1933 by the Fledgling Vic Wells company. Ninette de Valois who had an acute sense of the value of tradition and employed Nicolai Sergueyev, the former regisseur of the Maryinsky , to reconstruct Acts I and II of Coppelia . The first night was 21st March 1933. The company first performed the full three act ballet in 1940. It was in this production that Robert Helpman starred as Coppelius, “ a richly comic interpretation that, once seen, could never be forgotten .” In 1954 the company was provided with new scenery and costumes by Osbert Lancaster. In 2002 the 1954 Ninette de Valois production was restaged as part of 2001/2 season which was dedicated to Dame Ninette de Valois.

Its founder choreographer was Sir Frederick Ashton. Celebrated dancers of The Royal Ballet have included Dame Margot Fonteyn, Dame Ninette de Valois, Anthony Dowell, Rowena Jackson, Irek Mukhamedov, Darcey Bussell, Miyako Yoshida, Jose Manuel Carreño and Sylvie Guillem (guest principal). In 2002 former Royal Ballet dancer Monica Mason replaced Ross Stretton to become Director of the Company.

Its current Choreographer-in-Residence is Wayne McGregor.

Choreographers for the ballet company have included John Cranko, Sir Robert Helpmann, Sir Kenneth MacMillan and Lauren Stroud.

A very diverse company with dancers from all over the world, today the principal dancers include: Spanish Tamara Rojo, Japanese Miyako Yoshida (guest), Russian Viacheslav Samodurov, Italians Federico Bonelli and Ambra Vallo, Cuban Carlos Acosta (guest), Australian Leanne Benjamin, French Zenaida Yanowsky, Romanian Alina Cojocaru and Argentinian Marianela Nunez. Dean Landis is the new principal ballet dancer in the company and he has danced the male lead in the 2006 production of Swan Lake.