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 Kenneth MacMillanInternational Celebration commencing October 2002 |
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Companies from Britain and around the World pay tribute to a strikingly original choreographer with revivals, exhibitions and a major conference Principal UK partners: The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, The Theatre Museum, The Royal Academy of Dance, The National Film Theatre Through strikingly original choreography and often controversial choice of subject matter, Kenneth MacMillan pushed back the frontiers of ballet. October 2002 marks the tenth anniversary of his untimely death at the age of 63; An International Celebration of Kenneth MacMillan celebrates his prolific career with revivals of key works by companies all over the world, with exhibitions, film shows and a major conference. An International Celebration of Kenneth MacMillan is co-ordinated by the Kenneth MacMillan Estate and principal UK partners include The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, The Theatre Museum, The Royal Academy of Dance and The National Film Theatre. Elsewhere in the world, there will be new productions and revivals by companies from Milan to Montreal, from Paris, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco. A founder member of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and a protégé of Ninette de Valois, Kenneth MacMillan created more than 60 ballets - including five full-evening works - during a career of remarkable creativity. As well as his long association with The Royal Ballet and its two forerunners, Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet and Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, he also created ballets in Stuttgart, served as director of ballet at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and was Artistic Associate of American Ballet Theatre and Houston Ballet. He directed plays and worked on award winning television productions. His last choreography was for the National Theatre’s production of Carousel. It was during the first night revival of his full-length ballet Mayerling at the Royal Opera House on October 29, 1992 that he suffered a heart attack and died at the comparatively early age of 63.
Taking the lead in An International Celebration of Kenneth MacMillan is the Kenneth MacMillan Esatate and its principal trustee Deborah MacMillan, the choreographer’s widow. MacMillan entrusted the rights of his entire opus to the Estate, whose mission is to make the work widely available to companies throughout the world and to ensure that the ballets are performed to the highest standards. In this year of celebration, the Estate is particularly eager to promote new productions of MacMillan’s many fine one-act ballets.
Kenneth MacMillan rehearsing Lynn Seymour (1980) photograph by Anthony Crickmay, this picture is to be part of the forthcoming Theatre Museum exhibition "Kenneth MacMillan - The Outsider"
Principal UK partners in An International Celebration of Kenneth MacMillan areThe Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, The Theatre Museum, The Royal Academy of Dance and the National Film Theatre. The Royal Ballet, the company with which MacMillan was most closely associated, and of which he was both Artistic Director (1970 - 77 ) and Principal Choreographer (1977-92), pays tribute to MacMillan’s career during its 2002/2003 season with revivals of three full-length ballets - Mayerling (which opens on the anniversary of his death), Manon (January 2003) and The Prince of the Pagodas (April 2003). His one-act masterwork Song of the Earth (May 2003), created for the Stuttgart Ballet, and Winter Dreams (January 2003), one of his last works for The Royal Ballet, are also included in the season. Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production of Romeo and Juliet continues its tour this Spring. English National Ballet will revive The Rite of Spring (opening Southampton, November 12), a big company work of powerful dramatic impact created in 1962. The Theatre Museum in Covent Garden celebrates the choreographer’s achievement with Kenneth MacMillan - The Outsider (opening October 11 - ongoing). The exhibition places MacMillan in the balletic and theatrical mainstream of his time. It reflects MacMillan's aim to drag ballet into an adult, 20th century world and make it part of a significant theatrical experience, incorporating his principal themes of alienation, sex and violence. The exhibition, curated by Sarah Woodcock, the Museum's dance specialist, shows how these themes are given concrete form through the design, music and choreography, using classically trained dancers - creating a fundamental tension between form and subject.
Costume design by Nicholas Georgiadas for The Husband and The Wife in Kenneth MacMillan's The Invitation for The Royal Ballet Touring Company, 1960. Watercolour. This picture is to be part of the forthcoming Theatre Museum exhibition
The Royal Academy of Dance will host Revealing MacMillan (w/end October 12/13), a major conference on the choreographer’s work which brings together professional and scholarly knowledge to cast fresh light on the works. Contributors include renowned interpreters of MacMillan’s work, artistic collaborators, dance writers and academics and some of today’s leading performers. The RAD is also planning a MacMillan Gala at Sadler’s Wells in autumn 2003. Meanwhile, the National Film Theatre has programmed an evening of MacMillan ballets and documentaries on October 12 with screenings of other works planned.
At an international level there are new productions and revivals by companies from Milan to Montreal, from Paris, New York and San Francisco. Major European companies mounting MacMillan’s work during the 2002/2003 season include, La Scala Milan, with a new production of Romeo and Juliet planned for next spring and the Royal Danish Ballet, who premiere a new production of Manon (premiere: February 21, 2003) with new designs. In Paris audiences eagerly await the revival of Manon by the Paris Opera Ballet (June 14). American Ballet Theatre, of which MacMillan was Artistic Associate from 1984-1989, will perform Romeo and Juliet and the production of The Sleeping Beauty that he made for the company in 1987 (dates tba) and Houston Ballet, where he subsequently became Artistic Associate, will revive Manon (First night: September 5, 2002). Two other North American companies participate in the celebrations: Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Montreal introduce Gloria into the company’s repertoire for the first time (premiere: September 26, 2002) and San Francisco Ballet perform Elite Syncopations for the first time (February 2002). In Japan the Star Dancers of Toyko has just completed a tour of the country with A MacMillan Kaleidoscope – an evening dedicated to Kenneth MacMillan, and a production of Winter Dreams will tour the country in Spring 2003.
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It is no exaggeration to say that Kenneth MacMillan, through his choreography and through his choice of subject matter, pushed back the frontiers of ballet. Other choreographers before him explored human relationships but none ventured so bravely and so widely into complex and often tragic situations, with some characters called from literature, some from his own imagination and some from real life. Born in Dunfermline on December 11 1929, MacMillan grew up in Great Yarmouth where he took lessons from Phyllis Adams. After a mere nine months study he applied for a scholarship to the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet School and was accepted. After only a further year of study he became a founder member of the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, for which he made his first experimental workshop ballets. Their success and their promise led de Valois to commission the Stravinsky ballet Danses concertantes (1955). Thereafter, MacMillan danced with the Covent Garden company (he was a fine classical dancer), returned to the Wells and gradually abandoned dancing for his true vocation - choreography. In The Burrow, based on Kafka’s story, he discovered the dramatic gifts of a young Canadian dancer, Lynn Seymour, who was to become his muse. In The Invitation (1960) he gave her a role of such intensity that it established her as one of the great actress-ballerinas of our time. During a period of remarkable creativity he seemed to turn with ease from plotless ballets like Diversions and Symphony to big company works such as The Rite of Spring (1962) which was made
MacMillan created Winter Dreams for Irek Mukhamedov and Bussell, then gave him the leading role in The Judas Tree, with Viviana Durante (this work won the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for the best new dance production). It was during the first night of a revival of Mayerling, in October 1992, that MacMillan suffered a heart attack and died. MacMillan also created ballets in Stuttgart (Song of the Earth and Requiem), served as director of ballet at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, and was Artistic Associate of American Ballet Theatre (1984-89) and Houston Ballet (1989-92). He directed plays and worked on award-winning television productions. His last choreography was for the National Theatre’s production of Carousel, for which he won a Tony Award on Broadway. He was much honoured for his services to British ballet, culminating in his knighthood in 1983. In 1993 he was given a special Laurence Olivier Award for lifetime achievement, accepted by his daughter Charlotte. He is also survived by his widow, the artist Deborah MacMillan, who realised The Royal Ballet’s new production of Anastasia in May 1996 and is responsible for all revivals of his ballets.
© Mary Clarke {end of press release} |
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