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 Kenneth Macmillan - Ballet Dancer/Choreographer (1929 ? 1992)
Kenneth Macmillan was born in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1929. He was born of a very poor family. His father, an ex-miner and failed chicken farmer was unable to pay his debts and the family fled to Great Yarmouth in the middle of the night. Here Kenneth won a scholarship to the local grammar school where he learned, amongst other things, tap dancing and Scottish country dancing.
During the war the school was evacuated to Retford and it was here that he had his first ballet lessons from Jean Thomas, a local teacher. He was soon totally obsessed with ballet and by the time he was 23 he was already a member of the Royal Ballet. One of the artists who designed scenes and sets for the Royal Ballet was John Piper, the Henley artist, who, in 1951, took over the lease of the local theatre. After much reconstruction (including the building of a new magnificent proscenium arch) Piper and his partner Dr Adams renamed the building ?Kenton Theatre? and set about providing entertainment for the citizens of Henley. Piper approached his colleagues at the Royal Ballet, John Cranko and Kenneth Macmillan to perform at his new theatre. At this time Macmillan was suffering very badly from stage fright and was on the point of giving up his career as a dancer. John Piper was very persuasive and convinced them to form a small company and come to the Kenton.
The company consisted of ? Kenneth Macmillan, John Cranko, Geoffry Wise, Peter Wright, Yvonne Carter, Sonya Hana and Margaret Scott. John Piper and his friend Osbert Lancaster designed and painted the scenery. Osbert Lancaster was also responsible for the Box Office and for operating the curtain!
The season lasted from July 21st to August 2nd 1952. Included in the programme were THE PAS DE TOUS FROM PINEAPPLE POLL, THE FORGOTTEN ROOM and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, During rehearsals many alterations had to be made to the choreography in order to suit the small stage and it was here that Macmillan found his talent as a choreographer which he developed with the help of John Cranko and finally became known as the top choreographer of his era.
Bill Port
Extract from Wikipedia
Sir Kenneth MacMillan (11 December 1929 - 29 October 1992) was a British ballet dancer and choreographer. He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet in London between 1970 and 1977.
MacMillan was born at Dunfermline, Scotland. He grew up in Great Yarmouth, where he studied with Phyllis Adams. Later he won a scholarship to the Sadler's Wells Ballet School, where he studied for a year before, in 1946, joining Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, now known as Birmingham Royal Ballet. Whilst studying, he met and gained the support of Ninette de Valois, something he was to enjoy wholeheartedly for the rest of his life. In 1948 he moved to the Sadler's Wells Ballet, but returned to the Theatre Ballet four years later.
MacMillan began choreographing for the company's choreographic group and two promising early works, Somnambulism (1953) and Laiderette (1954) led de Valois to commission a work from the 25-year-old MacMillan. Danses concertantes was first produced in January 1955. He continued to dance, but gradually gave it up in favour of his true vocation. A string of successful works followed including Solitaire (1956), The Burrow (1958), Le baiser de la fée and The Invitation (1960), The Rite of Spring (1962), La Création du monde (1964) The Song of the Earth and his first full-length work, Romeo and Juliet (1965). The year he choreographed Romeo and Juliet, which has become one of his best-loved pieces, he was appointed resident choreographer at The Royal Ballet.
MacMillan was the director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin ballet from 1966 to 1969, and was made director of The Royal Ballet in 1970. He continued to choreograph and produced a string of masterpieces: Valses nobles et sentimentales (1966), Anastasia (one-act version 1967, three-act version 1971), The Seven Deadly Sins (1973), Manon and Elite Syncopations (1974), Requiem (1976), Mayerling (1978), Isadora (1981), The Prince of the Pagodas (1989) and The Judas Tree (1992). In 1977, aged only 48, he retired as director and took up the position of principal choreographer for The Royal Ballet. He was knighted in 1983.
MacMillan died of a heart attack on 29 October 1992 while backstage at Covent Garden during a revival of his Mayerling. Jeremy Isaacs, the general director of the Royal Opera House, announced the death from the stage after the performance and asked the audience to "please rise and bow your heads and leave the theatre in silence".[1] That same evening, Birmingham Royal Ballet was dancing his Romeo and Juliet in Birmingham. He is remembered as one of the great choreographers of the twentieth century who was unafraid of confronting controversial issues in his ballets (for example The Invitation and The Judas Tree). He often dwelled on the darker side of human nature and sexuality and some of his works centred on characters who would be considered outsiders in modern society. At the same time, ballets such as Elite Syncopations showed that he was capable of creating works of great wit and charm.
He was married to the painter and sculptor Deborah Williams, with whom he had a daughter Charlotte, a photographer, and both continue to oversee continuing productions of his work.
Although a talented dancer, MacMillan is best known for his choreography, and particularly for his work with the Royal Ballet. He also worked with the American Ballet Theatre (1956-7) and the Deutsche Oper, Berlin (1966-69). He succeeded Frederick Ashton as Director of the Royal Ballet in 1970 and resigned after seven years, frustrated at balancing the conflicting demands of creating ballets with administration. He continued as Principal Choreographer to the Royal Ballet until his death in 1992.
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