Last Updated on November 4, 2026
The Royal Ballet Honours Ninette de Valois
4.0 out of 5.0 starsIt’s no exaggeration to say that we owe what British ballet is today to Madam. That’s how everybody within The Royal Ballet universe still refers to Ninette de Valois, the visionary Irish-born woman who, exactly one hundred years ago, founded the Academy of Choreographic Art, which would become the Royal Ballet School (RBS) and spawn two world-class ballet companies: The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Earlier this year The Royal Ballet School marked its anniversary with a glittering programme, A Centenary Celebration, shown on the RBO main stage; now, The Royal Ballet brings to the Linbury a further 90-minutes programme, entitled simply “Madam” – nobody would dare address this daunting, driven woman by name – to flesh out the person behind the soubriquet and illustrate her work and the way in which it has shaped British ballet, not only in the development of its classical technique, but in her attention to choreography, which has been a key part of the school’s curriculum from the very beginning.
In an expansive, yet intimate programme, filmed sequences brought us the memories of some of those who worked with Madam: former principal dancers Monica Mason, who went on to have a long and successful stint as Royal Ballet director, Dame Antoinette Sibley and Anya Linden, now Lady Sainsbury. All remembered how daunted they were in Madam’s larger than life presence, and recalled her vivid imagination, respect for the art form and the way in which her vision was shaped by her spell with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. As Monica Mason put it, she wanted her dancers to be “theatre creators, not just ballet dancers.” Her association with ballet master Enrico Checcheti helped forge English ballet technique.
Madam’s sharp eye identified the specific talent of each of her dancers, as well as spotting and promoting choreographers, foremost among them the quintessential English dance maker, Frederick Ashton, and Kenneth MacMillan. She herself was an accomplished choreographer, and the core of this tribute programme was made up of six De Valois solos sandwiched between seven pieces, which illustrate choreographic developments post-Madam.
Madam’s diktat about “theatre creators” was evident in all six solos, but particularly in the “Elihu” and “Satan” solos from her ballet Job, set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Their contrasting themes – appolonian and dyonisian – were beautifully danced respectively by Martin Diaz and Marco Masciari, the former with slow movement and beautiful elongated lines, the latter with satanic energy, arms and hands at times giving the illusion of claw-shaped wings.
Also notable was Caspar Lench’s dancing of Vestris, a solo created on Wayne Sleep, whom Madam described as “the greatest virtuoso dancer The Royal Ballet has ever produced”, inspired by the celebrated 18th century dancer Auguste Vestris. Coached by Wayne Sleep, Lench gave an effortless reading of the intricate, playful choreography.
The remaining De Valois pieces were from The Rake’s Progress and her masterpiece Checkmate – the latter would have benefitted from a longer, contextual extract, as we saw in the RBS’s A Centenary Celebration.
The youngest choreographer represented was RBS pre-professional year student Soren Chisholm, whose short, assertive Peace with Honour was a duet set to President Nixon’s 1973 speech announcing the end of the Vietnam war – it showed daring and promise. Marianna Tsembenhoi did Ashton proud with her interpretation of the Ondine Variation, from the eponymous ballet originally created on Margot Fonteyn; time stood still as Yasmine Naghdi and Ryoichi Hirano performed the 2nd Movement of Concerto, set by MacMillan to music by Shostakovich, their slow, unhurried, precise dancing leaving me craving more.
Two contrasting choreographers more recently associated with The Royal Ballet – Wayne McGregor, Resident Choreographer since 2006, and Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Associate since 2012 – closed the programme.
McGregor was the first choreographer from a contemporary dance background to gain residency with the company, and a much-performed extract from his early work Chroma, exhibits the jagged gestures and hyperextensions we’ve come to associate with his style. It was danced with tremendous engagement by Anna Rose O’Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé. Christopher Wheeldon is an altogether different proposition: a dance maker of Elysian elegance, whose Beautiful Shadow, a pas de deux set to music by Benjamin Britten and dressed by Erdem Moralioglu was danced by guest principal Lauren Cuthbertson and Lukas B. Brændsrød as a masterclass in how to present a thoroughly modern, yet impeccably classic, creation.
The programme opened with an ensemble piece by the American choreographer Jessica Lange, inspired by poems by Ninette de Valois herself and danced by 16 RBS pre-professional year students; it premiered in the end of year Royal Ballet School Performance last July. And we saw a short extract from The Royal Ballet’s signature work, The Sleeping Beauty: the Aurora Vairation from Act III danced by the young RBS alumna Aurora Chinchilla.
Live music throughout was provided by pianist Kate Shipway and violinist Melissa Carstairs.
Madam is at the Linbury Theatre 3 & 4 November at 7.30 pm
Dur.: 90 mins no interval. Last few tickets: £6 – 62
RBO
Bow Street
London WC2E 9DD
For further dance suggestions check out our London Dance Previews – July to December 2026
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