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There were a stream of visitors including the Kirov, ABT, NDT, Paul Taylor and Alvin Ailey. All good stuff but the Royal were producing great work amidst great change. There was change at the top and change in the ranks as well. Frederick Ashton was replaced as Artistic Director by Kenneth MacMillan and the two companies (the travelling company and the main company) were shaken up considerably with 20 - 30 dancers being made redundant.
Ashton leaves the Royal Ballet
How Ashton came to leave the Royal seems to have some intrigue associated with it. Back in 1967 he was saying he wanted to retire in the 69/70 season but those who knew him felt it was silliness and he did not mean it - almost seeking reassurance. Regrettably (or otherwise I suppose, depending on your view) ROH management for whatever reason chose to take his words at face value and positioned Kenneth MacMillan to take over. In the end Ashton believed that he had effectively been fired. Even worse the initial announcement was made while RB were in NY - a city that adored both the Royal and Ashton particularly. Everybody seemed wounded.
Nobody appears fully sure why Ashton was treated so, though it looks to be bound in with a view that the administrative side of the two ballet companies needed sharpening and that the change would be of help to that process and to other senior managers in ROH at that time.
Prices
Dancing Times cost 3s 6d or 17.5p
The ROH Arts Council grant in 69/70 was £1.4M (up 9% on the previous year.)
Picture: Noemi Lapzeson & Robert North (of LCDT) in Paul Taylor's ‘Duet’ as shown on the cover of the May Dancing Times. North is the new Scottish Ballet Artistic Director.
Ballet of the Year
‘Dances at a Gathering’ by Robbins was added to the RB repertoire in October having first been created on NYCB in May. Nureyev, Sibley, Dowell, Wall, Coleman, Seymour and Mason danced in it. ‘Gathering’ was much praised on both sides of the Atlantic “.. the infinite variety of Robbins' invention holds us enthralled.” said Mary Clarke.
Calendar
| January |
9th January: the ROH announces the reorganisation of the the Royal Ballet companies - the plan to be put into effect for the next season starting in September. Approximately 26 dancers are to lose their jobs and £100,000 would be saved. The changes were mainly to the Touring Company which was replaced by a much smaller experimental 'New Group'. The main company augmented the New Group's touring by itself going out on the road for a few weeks. The aspiration was that the new group should literally do lots of new work.
In the Sunday Times Richard Buckle called it “a bold decision, shunning compromise, which may have the happiest results.” But in general the changes were not considered a success.
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| February |
5 Feb: Balanchine's ‘Who Cares’ (to Gershwin songs) gets its premiere at the NY State Theatre. Balanchine and Gershwin had actually discussed a collaboration back in the 1930's, but it took over 30 years for Balanchine to get round to it, Gershwin having died in 1937. For the first 9 months the ballet was danced without decor - Balanchine never really seems to have worried much about sets..
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| March |
28 Mar: Rambert premiere ‘Bertram Batell's Sideshow’ the title being an anagram of Ballet Rambert. A piece designed to educate and give an opportunity for young choreographers to do parts of a bigger whole. Later in the decade it was revived for television (BBC2)
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| April |
Desmond Kelly joins the RB Touring Company from National Ballet of Washington. He must have had a few doubts given the changes just announced. But Kelly is still there and is now Assistant Director at what has become Birmingham Royal Ballet.
2 Apr: Houston Rogers dies - described at the time as the doyen of British Ballet photographers
21 Apr: The Royal Ballet opens at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, for a 5 week run. MacMillan did not appear for the first night. When he arrived a couple of weeks later fans at the stage door pointedly called for Ashton... The situation was exacerbated because the repertoire taken by the Royal was also a disappointment to NY balletomanes - they wanted more Ashton in what after all was the last season with Ashton at the helm. Petitions were sent to the RB management even, but all too late. Even a final night Ashton gala does not seem to have placated them.
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| May |
Robbins ‘Dances at a Gathering’ is premiered by NYCB to great critical acclaim. Presumably MacMillan saw it and immediately asked Robbins to mount it on the Royal.
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| June |
20 Jun: Sibley dances her first ‘Giselle’ at Covent Garden with Donald MacLeary as her Albrecht. ".. a performance of such beauty, intelligence and grace.." said Mary Clarke in the Dancing Times. Clarke also singled out Monica Mason as "the best Queen of the Wilis I ever hope to see."
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| July |
24 Jul: Tribute Gala to Ashton on his retiring from Artistic Directorship. It was a Mystery Tour - the programme being kept totally secret. Kenneth MacMillan and John Field jointly took over directorship of the companies, but Field retired in December. There seems to have been a misunderstanding about their responsibilities, with MacMillan thinking he had total artistic control and Field believing it was a joint responsibility.
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| August |
9 Aug: Ballet Rambert fly off to Israel for a tour, though their sets and costumes were 'frozen' in a London dock strike - a popular form of entertainment in itself at the the time! The repertoire was changed at the last moment and costumes went out on a plane too.
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| September |
12 Sep: a 21 year old Peter Schaufuss dances with Festival Ballet for the first time. It's a matinee, but a ‘Sleeping Beauty’ matinee. Bags of promise and commanding stage presence are noted and his acquisition by Festival Ballet is called a “Festival Scoop”. Schaufuss went on to be Artistic Director of Festival Ballet (or ENB as now is) and eventually of DNB.
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October |
19 Oct: ‘Dances at a Gathering’ is premiered by the Royal Ballet. There is not a story but it is all about people, their loves and life. From a review by Mary Clarke; "There is a Mazurka for Nureyev and Dowell - a kind of 'anything you can do I can do better' number - which is thrilling because the dancers are so brilliant, so complementary. Dowell grows in personality and stature every day and clearly revels in out-dancing his celebrated opponent."
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November |
2 Nov: NDT open at Sadler's Wells with a double bill including ‘Mutations’ (by Tetley and van Manen) and featuring full fontal nudity. There was much publicity about it and Craig Dodd noted “It is very much a child of the times, and I do hope that times change.”
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Some things never change dept...
The Arts Council releases a report on Opera and Ballet in the UK 1966-1969. One of the recommendations was setting up a new smaller auditorium at Covent Garden, something they noted would be made possible by the moving of the Covent Garden market. Well 30 years on it looks as if the smaller auditorium is at last arriving.
Next Month
The year we'll be looking at will be 1987. Do write to us if you have any particular memories of that year.
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