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Date(s)
- 1978, undated (Creation)
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Extent and medium
Two pages of design sketches
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Name of creator
Biographical history
Kenneth MacMillan was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and began ballet classes in Retford, England, in 1940. He joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet School in 1944 and later the Sadler's Wells Ballet but gave up dancing for choreography partly due to crippling stage fright. His first choreographic work was Somnambulism, created for the Sadler's Wells Ballet Choreographic Group in 1953 and he created works for both Royal Ballet companies throughout his career. He created significant works for The Stuttgart Ballet and his works are danced by ballet companies world-wide. He has also created work for television and cinema.
Kenneth MacMillan was Director of the Deutsche Oper Ballet in Berlin from 1966 to 1969, Artistic Director of The Royal Ballet from 1970 to 1977 and its Principal Chroreographer from 1977 until his death. He was also Associate Director of American Ballet Theatre from 1984 to 1989, and Artistic Associate of the Houston Ballet from 1989 to 1992.
Kenneth MacMillan was knighted in 1983, and he received honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh (1976) and the Royal College of Art (1992). His awards include the Evening Standard Ballet Award (1979); Society of West End Theatre Ballet Award, 1980 and 1983; and, posthumously, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production in 1993 for The Judas Tree; the Society of London Theatre Special Award in 1993; and the Tony Award for Best Choreography in 1994 for Carousel
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Barry Kay provided the designs for the new production of The Four Seasons mounted by Kenneth MacMillan for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1978. These two pages of drawings in pen and ink are for the characters that announce the seasons. Summer is led by Pan with three dwarf attendants, two centaurs and a child centaur; Autumn is led by Pomone with a child attendant, six attendants drawing Bacchus on a canon and three grotesque children; Winter is led by Diana with two cherubs, four attendants carrying a male dancer as a lion in a cage with a further four attendants helping to carry the cage; Spring is led by Venus with six attendants and Cupid.
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Note
These drawings would be good to digitise
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Name access points
- MacMillan, Kenneth (Subject)
- Kay, Barry (Subject)