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Kenneth MacMillan
Choreographer
© Anthony Crickmay
Biography
Born on 11 December 1929 in Dunfermline, Scotland, Kenneth MacMillan studied dance at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School (now the Royal Ballet) before joining the company in 1946. His career really began when he was recruited by Ninette de Valois for Sadlers' Wells Theatre Ballet. An excellent dancer but suffering from stage fright, MacMillan preferred to turn to choreography. His first ballet, Danses concertantes (1955, entered the repertoire of the Ballet de l'Opéra in 1984), set by Nicholas Georgiadis - soon to be his favourite collaborator - revealed his great creativity.
In 1965, his Romeo and Juliet marked a significant evolution in the tradition of grand ballets, an essential element of the Royal Ballet of which he was resident choreographer. MacMillan, deeply affected by Covent Garden's refusal to stage his ballet to Gustav Mahler's Song of the Earth, took over the direction of the West Berlin Opera Ballet. In 1965, his colleague and friend John Cranko, director of the Stuttgart Ballet, asked him to programme the creation of Le Chant de la terre (which entered the Opera Ballet repertoire in 1978), which was a triumph. In 1970, he returned to London to take over the direction of the Royal Ballet. His new creations received a lukewarm reception, including L'Histoire de Manon (1974), which entered the Opera Ballet repertoire in 1990. He resigned in 1977 to devote himself to choreography.
Associate Director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1984 to 1989, then Artistic Associate of the Houston Ballet from 1989 until his death in 1992, he also created Métaboles and remounted Les Quatre Saisons (1978) and Danses concertantes (1984) for the Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris. Kenneth MacMillan died on 29 October 1992.
