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Ratmansky's Harlequinade

A brand new production of Harlequinade, staged by Alexei Ratmansky after the original by Marius Petipa, will be premiered by American Ballet Theatre on 4 June with Isabella Boylston as Columbine, James Whiteside as Harlequin, Gillian Murphy as Pierrette and Thomas Forster as Pierrot. Sarah Lane, Jeffrey Cirio, Stella Abrera and David Hallberg will lead the ballet for the first time on 5 June. There will be debuts by Misty Copeland (Columbine), Daniil Simkin (Harlequin), Hee Seo (Pierrette) and Alexandre Hammoudi (Pierrot) at the 6 June matinee, and by Cassandra Trenary (Columbine), Gabe Stone Shayer (Harlequin), Christine Shevchenko (Pierrette) and Blaine Hoven (Pierrot) at the evening performance. A comic ballet in two-acts, Harlequinade is set to music by Riccardo Drigo and was originally premiered in 1900 in St Petersburg. The new production will feature sets and costumes by Robert Perdziola and lighting by Brad Fields. Harlequinade is a co-production with The Australian Ballet. This short film is by Ezra Hurwitz. www.metopera.org

Victoria

Northern Ballet has announced that it will premiere a new ballet, Victoria, choreographed by Cathy Marston in spring 2019. The ballet will coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of the iconic British Queen and tells her story through the eyes of her youngest child and lifelong companion, Beatrice. Travelling back in time from Victoria’s death bed, Beatrice relives her memories of her mother as a secluded widow before discovering her anew as she transcribes the Queen’s intimate diaries. From the accession of the teenage princess Victoria, Beatrice uncovers her mother’s challenging relationship with her own mother; the truth about her passionate marriage to Prince Albert and her ambiguous relationship with John Brown; as well as key events of her reign, from the Opium Wars to the Great Exhibition. The world première will take place in Leeds on 9 March 2019.

Life is a Dream

Choreographed by Kim Brandstrup, Life is a Dream is Rambert’s first new full-length narrative work since Glen Tetley’s The Tempest in 1979. Based on the 17th century play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, the new work has sets and projections by the Quay Brothers, music by Witold Lutosławski and is set in a rehearsal studio. As the director falls asleep, images of the day’s rehearsals run through his mind and the play is “revisited, recast and replayed, and fantastic images of worlds far beyond his room appear.” Following last night’s preview, Life is a Dream is at Sadler’s Wells  until 26 May.

White Nights

The Mariinsky Theatre’s XXVI Stars of White Nights opens on 23 May and runs until 29 July. The ballet repertoire includes full-length productions of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet La Bayadère, Jewels, La Sylphide, Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Bronze Horseman, Legend of Love, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Raymonda and Le Corsaire, as well as act-one ballets Apollo, In the Night, Symphony in C, The Seasons, Petrushka, Les Noces, Symphony in Three Movements, Concert DSCH, Lady and the Hooligan, Leningrad Symphony, Chopiniana, Le Spectre de la Rose, Swan, The Four Seasons, Carmen Suite and Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. Within the festival there are also three performances by graduates of the Vaganova Ballet Academy on 12, 14 & 16 June, and the performance of Romeo and Juliet on 13 June marks 15 years of Vladimir Shklyarov’s career on stage. Shklyarov also performs the first Raymonda, partnering Alina Somova on 24 May, while the performances of the same ballet on 26 and 28 May will feature Viktoria Tereshkina and Xander Parish as Raymonda and Jean de Brienne respectively. The complete White Nights programme can be viewed HERE

Swan Lake

The Royal Ballet premiered Liam Scarlett's new production of Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House on 17 May. The leading protagonists were danced by Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov. The new staging replaces Anthony Dowell's production and has fabulous designs by John Macfarlane. Performances, with several different casts, continue until 21 June. More info and casting can be found HERE

ENB Emerging Dancer 2018

English National Ballet will be holding its Emerging Dancer competition at the London Coliseum for the first time on 11 June. This year’s promising dancers, selected by their peers, are Precious Adams, Fernando Carratalá Coloma, Francesca Velicu, Daniel McCormick, Connie Vowles and Giorgio Garrett. Each dancer will perform a pas de deux and a solo, and last year’s joint Emerging Dancer Award winners Aitor Arrieta and Rina Kanehara will perform the pas de deux from Act III of The Sleeping Beauty, whilst the winner of the 2017 People’s Choice Award, Georgia Bould, will perform an extract from La Sylphide.