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Richard Rodney Bennett was commissioned to write the score for Isadora. This file contains letters and notes from Richard Rodney Bennett to Kenneth MacMillan about the music and scenario, plus one list on proposed additional music in an unidentified hand. The material comprises

1. A handwritten letter from Richard Rodney Bennett to Kenneth MacMillan enclosing the rewrites for Act I. One double sided page, undated
2. One handwritten page of Notes on proposed additional music with approximate timings and explanations about the music. In ink with some water damage, written as though from Richard Rodney Bennett but in an unidentified hand, undated
3. A handwritten letter from Richard Rodney Bennett to Kenneth MacMillan enclosing the music for Isadora's dance after the death of her children, one page, undated
4. Five pages of handwritten Notes for K.M. Isadora Act I. Richard Rodney Bennett goes through scenes 2 - 8 describing the music and how it fits with the scenario. Undated
5. Typed letter from Richard Rodney Bennett in New York to Kenneth MacMillan. Describes going to see Grey Gardens, the film about Edith Bouvier Beale aunt and niece, and what a good scenario for a ballet their story would make. He reports working on Isadora and discusses the Polonaise and his concerns about not using a trained singer. Also he suggests some cuts to Gillian Freeman's scenario. Three pages, signed and undated. Envelope postmarked 21 Aug 1980

There are four handwritten lists, one original and three photocopies, giving details of the characters and the numbers of costumes required. There are 11 pages of colour copies of costume designs, several to a page. The material is stored in a cardboard folder which has some handwritten notes on one piece of cardboard (large)

1. Two pages of typed information from Novello & Company, London, giving a brief biography of Giles Swayne and a list of works available from Novello, undated
2. One printed page giving details of Cry, the voices and the movements, undated
3. One handwritten postcard from Tanya Bruce-Lockhart to Kenneth MacMillan enclosing a cassette and asking for his advice
4. One audio cassette recording of Cry with handwritten label Stereo Copy: Novello for Private Listening Only, undated

The collection comprises original, personal letters from several luminaries in the ballet world including Anton Dolin, Margot Fonteyn Peggy van Praagh and Anthony Tudor. Mostly dating from the 1980s, the correspondence also includes some photocopies of letters relating to work issues from company directors. Photographs taken during Dai Ailian's visits to the RAD in 1981 and 1993 are incorporated into the collection along with a small number of colour photos also donated by Daryl Ries.

Dance Advance was formed by six ex-dancers from The Royal Ballet. The Company commissioned a new work from Kenneth MacMillan for their inaugural season in March 1988 and he created Sea of Troubles for them, a distillation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The correspondence in this file includes handwritten letters from Susie Crow, one of the Artistic Directors and dancers, to Deborah MacMillan about performances in the Isle of Wight and in Spain, to Kenneth MacMillan explaining why the Company had to cease existence, from Anglia television about including the ballet in the Folio series, a programme from the Festival de Otono, Spain, and some background information to the ballet.

Contact prints of the Company in various poses, with a covering letter from Catherine Ashmore to Kenneth MacMillan, one photographic print of Sea of Troubles signed in the border by the Company, and two colour photographic prints of the arras in Sea of Troubles

Photographs of dancers including Lynn Seymour, Alexis Rassine, Margot Fonteyn, Georgina Parkinson, Margaret Dale, Pirmin Trecu, Greta Hamby, Nathalia Krassovska, Roland Petit and Zizi Jeanmaire, and others, all in costume. One photocopy of a photograph of Frank Frey, taken on a beach in Israel

There are nine small photographs possibly in rehearsal clothes, seven head and shoulders and two full length. The small ones include two smoking a cigarette and one with cigarette and mirror, the full length include posed on the floor surrounded by Ballet magazine and one ballet pose. Two of the larger photographs are on brown pages taken from an album. These photographs are possibly taken by Paul Wilson, see credit in Different Drummer. The reverse of one of the mounted photographs has two dancing photographs, catalogued at RAD/2/MAC/5/4/2.
There are four small photographs in costume for Valses nobles et sentimentales, three with [Donald Britton] on a roof in Covent Garden, two small photographs in an unidentified costume, one full length, one head and shoulders holding a candle, two small photographs seated at a table looking at a photograph in a frame, and one small photograph seated at a table outside at the seaside (?)

In 1992 the Arts Council invited Kenneth MacMillan to be a judge for the David Cohen British Literature Prize launched that year. The material in this file consists of the letter of invitation, a list of the jury with some brief handwritten notes beside three names, two copies of the authors to be considered with handwritten annotations on both, Kenneth MacMillan's handwritten draft letter of resignation from the jury and David Cohen's letter accepting his resignation, 11 May 1992 - 9 Oct 1992