Ballet in 1952
	This is an untypical format for our Ballet Years pages: it was written at the time of the Queen's Golden Jubilee, to give an idea of what dance audiences would have been seeing 50 years ago that summer. The Sadler's Wells Ballet was at Covent Garden for the whole of June and the first week of July, giving 19 performances: Coppélia, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and 8 short ballets (4 by Ashton - Scènes de Ballet, Daphnis and Chloe, Les Patineurs, Symphonic Variations; A Mirror for Witches (Andree Howard); Bonne-Bouche (Cranko); Checkmate (de Valois); Ballabile (Petit)). Two noticeable differences from today were that there were 6 performances of triple bills, and they were all different combinations; and that when the June Dance and Dancers went to press, they still couldn't print the dates for the whole month as they hadn't been announced - none of this booking seven months ahead! There were 65 dancers in the company at this period. Bonne-Bouche was new that season and was a great hit, although it must be the most unreviveable ballet ever - it featured Alexander Grant blacked-up as a Cannibal King, who eventually ate his bride (a girl from South Kensington) for lunch. Simultaneously, the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet was at its home theatre with 12 more short ballets, including 4 by de Valois, and Coppélia. Following SWB into Covent Garden came the big treat of the summer - New York City Ballet, on their second visit to London, dancing 19 ballets over seven weeks. Mostly Balanchine, of course, but also things you might not expect, like The Cage, and Tudor's Lilac Garden and La Gloire. They had a week at the Edinburgh Festival later, which included a couple more ballets not seen in London. Meanwhile Ballet Rambert visited Windsor, Wimbledon, and Finsbury Open Air Theatre with several different quadruple bills, and gave one performance at the International Eisteddfod. International Ballet had a short season in Belfast and were also seen in Birmingham and Nottingham. Festival Ballet were in Bournemouth, Leeds and Southsea during June, and then spent the whole of August at the Festival Hall with Giselle, Nutcracker, Beau Danube and other short pieces, including Ashton's Vision of Marguerite. It's interesting that both this company and Sadler's Wells always filled out 2-act ballets - Nutcracker and Giselle - with something else to make up a full programme. Outside ballet, Katherine Dunham and her dancers toured England and Scotland, and the Yugoslav State Company gave a programme called Slavonic Rhapsody at the Cambridge Theatre in London for several weeks. Two one-offs: a film of Beryl Grey and John Field in the Black Swan pas de deux was shown at a London cinema - the unusual thing being that it was in 3D; and John Cranko presented a programme of short pieces at the Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames, for 2 weeks. One of the new works was called L'Après Midi d'Emily Wigginbotham. Prominent among the dancers were Kenneth MacMillan and Peter Wright.
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