VISIONARIES: ROBBINS AND MACMILLAN to Open at The Royal Ballet
The programme combines two signature abstract works set to music by Chopin and Mahler.
The Royal Ballet will present Visionaries: Robbins and MacMillan, a buoyant and meditative programme celebrating humanity, community and connection. Combining Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering with Kenneth MacMillan's Song of the Earth, the programme is a showcase for some of the Company's greatest signature abstract works. Performances will run 9 – 28 November 2026.
Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering is a buoyant series of plotless dances, each a portrait of connection and a joyful kaleidoscope of shifting moods. Set to some of Fryderyk Chopin's most familiar piano melodies, it was Robbins' first creation for the New York City Ballet in 1969. It was brought into The Royal Ballet's repertory in 1970 by Kenneth MacMillan, who was at the time the Director of the Company. The Royal Ballet premiere featured dancers including Monica Mason, Lynn Seymour, Antoinette Sibley, Anthony Dowell, Rudolf Nureyev and David Wall. This revival features a number of debut performances from dancers, some new to the ballet and some new to their roles in it, among them Principal dancers Francesca Hayward, Sarah Lamb, Fumi Kaneko, Yasmine Naghdi, Akane Takada, Cesar Corrales, Vadim Muntagirov and Joseph Sissens.
The programme is completed with Principal Choreographer Kenneth MacMillan's Song of the Earth, last performed by The Royal Ballet in 2015. MacMillan's elegiac and earthbound choreography expresses the metaphysical themes in Gustav Mahler's symphonic song cycle Song of the Earth (Das Lied von de Erde). Exploring themes such as the transience of life and the imminence of death, MacMillan draws on 8th-century Chinese poems that inspired both composer and choreographer. Originally created by MacMillan for the Stuttgart Ballet in 1965, it was brought to The Royal Ballet a year after its successful premiere, and featured guest artist Marcia Haydée and Royal Ballet Principals Donald MacLeary and Anthony Dowell. This revival will see a number of anticipated debuts by Melissa Hamilton, Matthew Ball, William Bracewell, Patricio Revé, Giacomo Rovero and Lukas B. Brændsrød.
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