The Royal Ballet's ROMEO AND JULIET Opens the 2021/22 Season

This October The Royal Ballet returns for its first full Season in 18 months with a Season featuring world premieres of Wayne McGregor's The Dante Project, Christopher Wheeldon's Like Water for Chocolate, a new work by Kyle Abraham as well as classics including Giselle, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.

The Season opens with Kenneth MacMillan's masterpiece Romeo and Juliet on Tuesday 5 October in what will be the first time the Company have performed a full three-act production since March 2020. Romeo and Juliet has become a modern-day classic since its premiere in 1965 with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn in the lead roles. The ballet also receives a special Valentine's Day cinema screening on 14 February 2022.

MacMillan's famously dramatic choreography gives dancers in the lead roles a wealth of opportunity for differing interpretations of the star-crossed lovers. Evocative designs by Nicholas Georgiadis bring the colour and action of Renaissance Verona, where a busy market all too quickly bursts into sword fighting and a family feud leads to tragedy for both the Montagues and the Capulets. Prokofiev's ravishing score sweeps this dramatic ballet towards its inevitable, emotional end.

Casting includes Royal Ballet Principals Francesca Hayward and Cesar Corrales, Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae, Yasmine Naghdi and Vadim Muntagirov with newly promoted Principal Fumi Kaneko and First Soloist Wiliam Bracewell making their debuts on Saturday 9 October. Romeo and Juliet returns to the repertory in January 2022 featuring performances by Natalia Osipova with Reece Clarke making his debut, Marianela Nunez and Federico Bonelli, Lauren Cuthbertson and Matthew Ball, Melissa Hamilton and Ryoichi Hirano plus a special Valentine's Day cinema screening on 14 February 2022 with newly appointed Principal Anna Rose O'Sullivan and Marcelino Sambé.

Debuts in 2022 also include Alexander Campbell performing with Akane Takada, and recently promoted Principal Mayara Magri and First Soloist Calvin Richardson. Conductors for the run comprise The Royal Ballet's Music Director Koen Kessels, Staff Conductor Jonathan Lo and renowned Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra who returns following her last Royal Opera House collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale and ahead of his new creation Like Water for Chocolate.