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Performance Dates
25 January - 19 March 2027
Run time: 2 hours and 45 minutes
Includes interval
See the unmissable works of choreographer, Frederick Ashton, the master craftsman who defined British ballet in the 20th century. See Ashton’s choreographic imagination come to life on the stage, with three milestone works across three decades; Les Rendezvous, Symphonic Variations, Daphnis and Chloë.
Landmarks: Unmissable Ashton is a ballet show celebrating the work of the master craftsman choreographer of British ballet in the 20th century. The three works include Les Rendezvous, Symphonic Variations, Daphnis and Chloë.
Les Rendezvous, created in 1933, is a joyous succession of dances representing a group of friends meeting in the park. This was the first of Ashton’s major ballet works for the Vic-Wells company, now known as The Royal Ballet. The group of young people meet in the park, flirt, and then leave. Set to Constant Lambert’s arrangement of music by Daniel Auber.
Symphonic Variations, created in 1946, is Ashton’s celebration of dance in a post-war society. Demonstrating an elegant purity in the marriage between movement and music, the ballet remains an indisputable tour de force to this day. In this piece he stripped away narrative or ornamentation, to focus on the art of dance and movement.
The final piece, Daphnis and Chloë is inspired by Maurice Ravel’s orchestral work of the same name. This 1951 ballet recounts the mythical Greek romance between a goatherd and a shepherdess.