VIDEO: Get A First Look At The Royal Ballet's 21st Century Choreographers

The Royal Ballet celebrates contemporary choreography in an evening that demonstrates the breadth of choreographic talent working with the Company today. Stream the full performance from 21 May 2021.

The Royal Ballet celebrates the creative vision of some of today's finest international choreographers in a mixed programme of contemporary work. This programme opens with Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon's Within the Golden Hour, originally created for San Francisco Ballet in 2008. Brought into the Royal Ballet repertory in 2016, with glittering designs by Jasper Conran, the ballet weaves ensemble pieces with pas de deux reflecting the beauty of movement.

All the excitement of a world premiere follows with Optional Family: a divertissement created by American choreographer Kyle Abraham ahead of his commission by The Royal Ballet for the 2021/22 Season. Acclaimed for his mercurial fusion of dance styles, Abraham has created works for his own company A.I.M and for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and New York City Ballet, as well as solo works for celebrated American Ballet Theater principals Misty Copeland and Calvin Royal III. He appeared in the Linbury Theatre in 2014 in a pas de deux created for Wendy Whelan's Restless Creature.

Following the Olivier award-winning success of her poignant Flight Pattern, the extraordinary imagination of Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite is demonstrated again in two works created for Nederlands Dans Theater and performed for the first time by The Royal Ballet. The shadowy depths of human nature and boardroom politics are explored in the riveting dance-drama of The Statement contrasted with an atmospheric evocation of winter in Solo Echo, inspired by a poem by Mark Strand and the melancholy beauty of Brahms's sonatas for cello and piano.

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