To coincide with Royal Ballet China tour in June, British Council will deliver a Creativity through Dance Workshop targeting teaching artists, local community, school groups and disadvantage groups in partnership with National Centre for Performing Arts. It is part of Accessible City strand in the three-year programme “Creative Cities”.

<Beijing>

Manon
Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)
Date: 7:30PM, 18-20 June 2008
Price (RMB): 100、200、400、600、800、1000
Ticket hotline: 010-64068888 (Beijing) 400-818-3333 (China)

The Sleeping Beauty
Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)
Date: 7:30PM, 21-23 June 2008
Price (RMB): 100、180、200、280、400、480、600、680、800、880、1000、1080
Ticket hotline: 010-64068888 (Beijing) 400-818-3333 (China)

Mixed Programme
Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)
Date: 7:30PM, 25-26 June 2008
Price (RMB): 100、200、400、600、800、1000
Ticket hotline: 010-64068888 (Beijing) 400-818-3333 (China)

<Shanghai>

Manon
Performed by The Royal Ballet Covent Garden
Orchestra: Shanghai Opera House Orchestra
Venue: Shanghai Grand Theatre
Date: 7:15PM, 28 June (Sat); 1:30PM & 7:15PM, 29 June (Sun) 2008
Price (RMB):
Evening: 160, 260, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000
Matinee: 140, 240, 380, 480, 580, 780, 980
Ticket hotline: 021-63728702、63723833、63598032、63271943

<Hong Kong>

Mixed Programme
Venue: Hong Kong Cultural Centre     
Date: 17, 18 July 2008

Manon
Venue: Hong Kong Cultural Centre     
Date: 19, 20 July (mat & eve) 2008

The Royal Opera House would like to thank the British Council, China, Connections Through Culture Programme for their support.

The Royal Ballet returns to China this summer for the first time in nearly ten years. The tour will be supported by Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, in recognition of the importance of its substantial trading links with China.

The Royal Ballet Company will embark on a major five week tour to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong performing some of their most popular ballets including Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon and Monica Mason and Christopher Newton’s production of The Sleeping Beauty. Alongside these two full length ballets will be a programme of mixed work which reflects the broad range of choreographic styles the Company performs including Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, Frederick Ashton’s Thaïs pas de deux, his pas de quatre from Swan Lake, Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet pas de deux, George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky pas de deux, the final pas de deux from Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote and the recreation of Ashton’s Homage to The Queen which includes new choreography from David Bintley, Christopher Wheeldon and Michael Corder.

Monica Mason, Director of The Royal Ballet says: “It is a particular pleasure to be returning to China, where audiences are discerning and knowledgeable about ballet and have such a deep appreciation of their own traditional art forms.  We very much look forward to performing in the newly opened National Centre for the Performing Arts and are delighted to be performing in Beijing on the 23rd of June, the opening day of the Beijing Cultural Festival. We will present a varied repertoire that includes The Sleeping Beauty and Manon as well as recent work from our Resident Choreographer, Wayne McGregor. We are also very pleased to be welcoming the Central Ballet of China to the main stage of the Royal Opera House in London this summer.  This shared passion for dance is a wonderful way of developing relationships between our two countries.  We’re also immensely grateful to Rio Tinto for making this tour to China possible through their very generous support.”

Paul Skinner, chairman of Rio Tinto, said: “China’s economy is expanding rapidly and it is an increasingly important consumer of the metals and minerals we produce.  We hope to forge even closer ties with China by helping to make the tour possible and bringing this outstanding company to Chinese audiences.  This is a particularly prestigious and important tour as it coincides with the Beijing Cultural Festival.”

Performances by The Royal Ballet in Beijing will be accompanied by a series of workshops developed jointly by the Education Departments of the Royal Opera House and the National Centre for the Performing Arts and generously supported by the British Council, China, Connections Through Culture Programme.  

These workshops will use dance to inspire and empower young pupils in Beijing to learn and to develop their creativity through engagement with the Royal Opera House’s work.    The Company understands the importance of a cultural exchange when touring internationally and aims to strengthen links with the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Shanghai Grand Theatre and the British Council, Hong Kong alongside the wider arts education communities in the UK and China.

The relationship between the Royal Opera House and the NCPA has been supported by the British Council (operating as the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy in Beijing) Connections through Culture programme, which provides funding and opportunities for cultural organisations in the UK and China to build partnerships.

The Company is led by The Royal Ballet Principals Alexandra Ansanelli, Leanne Benjamin, Federico Bonelli, Alina Cojocaru, Mara Galeazzi, Johan Kobborg, Sarah Lamb, David Makhateli, Roberta Marquez, Laura Morera, Marianela Nuñez, Ivan Putrov, Tamara Rojo, Viacheslav Samodurov, Thiago Soares and Edward Watson.

Tony Hall, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, says that:

“through our partnership with the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and throughout this important period during the lead up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and then on to the London Olympics in 2012, we aim to have a meaningful and sustained relationship with one of the great cultural institutions in China.  I am delighted that The Royal Ballet will be visiting China this summer and that audiences here will be able to see this great company live on such a prestigious new stage.  The relationship between our two theatres is however broader than this and is based on mutual respect and the ongoing exchange of expertise and ideas between arts managers, theatre technicians, the artists and the many professionals with specialised and creative skills who work in our theatres.”

The National Centre for the Performing Arts
Located near the Great Hall of the People and the Forbidden City and designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, the National Centre for the Performing Arts is fast becoming a striking and iconic landmark in Beijing with its futuristic look. The exterior of the theatre is a titanium accented glass dome surrounded by a man-made lake and is said to look like an egg floating on water. Guests will arrive in the building after walking through a hallway that goes underneath the lake. More than 149,500 square meters (1.6 million square feet) in area, it will comprise three halls, including a 2,416-seat opera house, a 2,017-seat concert hall and a 1,040-capacity theater and will join the ranks of the great theatres of the world. Performances at the theatre began this September.

The Royal Opera House
Situated in Covent Garden, in the heart of London, the Royal Opera House is home to The Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera Company, Orchestra and Chorus and holds a very special place in the hearts of British and international audiences and lovers of music, opera and dance.  The Royal Opera House is proud of its long and great history and the extraordinary artists who have performed there and is now delighted to work with the National Centre for the Performing Arts as it opens its doors to the world.

Tony Hall
Tony Hall became Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House in April 2001. He set up ROH2, a department under the former ballerina Deborah Bull, devoted to supporting new artists, and developing new audiences.  He has set up new initiatives to widen access to the Opera House - including big screen relays out of London, Paul Hamlyn weekends, and other low price schemes. Until 2001, he was Chief Executive BBC News; he launched Radio 5 Live, Britain’s first 24 news and sport radio, BBC News 24, BBC News Online and BBC Parliament.   He built the BBC news gathering network to be a world beater. At present he is Chair of the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, Joan Littlewood’s old theatre. In April 2004 he was appointed Chair of the Sector Skills Council for the Creative and Cultural Industries.  He also chairs the Music and Dance Scheme Advisory Board, and is currently leading a Dance Review for the Dfes. He is a member of the Management Committee of the Clore Leadership Programme, and a non-executive Director of Channel 4 Television. He is also on the Culture and Creative Advisory Forum panel for the DCMS.

He has been an Honorary Visiting Fellow of Journalism at City University, a member of the Regeneration Through Heritage Steering Group, a board member for Race for Opportunity, a board member for Learndirect, and was a member of the Council for Brunel University. He is the author of King Coal (1981) – a history of the Miners Union, and Nuclear Power (1984). He was awarded a CBE in 2005, and is married with two children.

Connections through Culture
The British Council runs Connections through Culture in partnership with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with support from the Scottish Government.