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.

Kenneth MacMillan created the one-act ballet Sea of Troubles for Dance Advance which premiered on 17.3.1988 at the Gardner Arts Centre at the University of Sussex. It is a distillation of Shakespeare's Hamlet and was designed by Deborah MacMillan. The material comprises:

1. One two-page typed letter from Martin D. Pring enclosing tapes of musical possibilities for the ballet, including pieces by Botislavu Martinu, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Charles Ives and Dmitri Shostakovitch, 27Oct1987
2. One design by Deborah MacMillan for Sea of Troubles Curtain, with handwritten notes, initialled DM, on A4 paper with pencil sketch on reverse
3. One page torn from a filo-fax with a handwritten list by Deborah MacMillan of costume and prop items required for 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