Royal Ballet

Royal Ballet, principal British ballet company. The Royal Ballet was founded in 1931, originating from a school opened by Ninette de Valois in London in 1926. The company was first known as the Vic-Wells Ballet, but was soon based at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, also in London, with de Valois as artistic director and Constant Lambert as musical director. In 1933 Frederick Ashton was appointed as choreographer and began a period of intense creativity inspired by Margot Fonteyn. By 1939 all the major classical ballets had been revived for the company by the Russian dancer Nicholas Sergeyev.

During World War II the company relied on Robert Helpmann as dancer and choreographer and developed a popular audience. By 1946 it was ready to expand into the Royal Opera House (see Covent Garden), opening with the Marius Petipa production of The Sleeping Beauty in 1946. This became its signature work and won the company recognition in New York in 1949. Ashton ushered in another period of creativity when he choreographed Symphonic Variations (1946) and Cinderella (1948). A second company directed by Peggy Van Praagh at Sadler’s Wells Theatre grew into maturity as a training ground for young dancers and choreographers, including John Cranko and Kenneth MacMillan. The school also developed strongly and all three institutions came together as the Royal Ballet through a royal charter in 1956.

In the 1960s the presence of Rudolf Nureyev revitalized Fonteyn and strengthened standards of male dancing. Ashton became director in 1963 and imported some signal works, including Les Noces, in 1966, by Bronislava Nijinska, the sister of Vaslav Nijinsky. In 1964 Peter Brinson’s Ballet for All group began the educational work of the company. During this time the second company toured widely with a popular repertory of the classics and major revivals led by John Field.

In 1970, under the direction of MacMillan, the companies of the Royal Ballet were reorganized into one large company with an experimental touring wing. By 1976 this policy had been reversed and, led by Peter Wright, the second company found a home in Birmingham in 1990 and became the Birmingham Royal Ballet. In 1986 Anthony Dowell became director of the Royal Ballet. In 1994 Dance Bites was established to create new works for the Royal Ballet. With the closure in 1997 of the Royal Opera House for development (reopened in December 1999), the Dance Bites tour became increasingly important. Following Dowell's decision to step down as director at the end of the 2000-2001 season, Ross Stretton, artistic director of the Australian Ballet, was appointed as his successor. When Stretton resigned in September 2002, just 13 months after taking up the post, Monica Mason, who had been with the company since 1958 (most recently as assistant director), was promoted to the job.