Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Sir Kenneth MacMillan, 62, revived British ballet Date: Sat, 31 Oct 92 14:00:15 EST Message-ID: \SE B;LIFE \SS (WS) \HD Sir Kenneth MacMillan, 62, revived British ballet \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT LONDON LONDON - Sir Kenneth MacMillan, principal choreographer of the Royal Ballet, died of a heart attack Thursday night backstage at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the company reported. He was 62. Sir Kenneth, who almost singlehandedly revived the tradition of full-length ballet in Britain, died as a revival of his 1978 ballet "Mayerling" was being staged. Jeremy Isaacs, general director of the 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 theater in silence." Sir Kenneth's death came during rehearsals for a Royal National Theater revival of the American musical "Carousel," which he was choreographing for a Dec. 10 opening. It was unclear how his death will affect the production. Besides his work in London, he became artistic associate of the American Ballet Theater in New York in 1984 and assumed a similar title in Houston in 1988. His theater-directing credits included Ionesco's "The Chairs" and "The Lesson" (1982), Strindberg's "The Dance of Death" (1983) and Tennessee Williams' "Kingdom of the Earth" (1984). The "Carousel" revival was to mark his debut as a choreographer in musical theater. Sir Kenneth, ultimately responsible for more than 40 ballets, including classic productions of "Manon" and "Romeo and Juliet," was knighted in 1983. The youngest of three children born into an impoverished family in Dunfermline, Scotland, he left school at 14 to study ballet in London. "Ballet then was considered sissy; I had to keep it secret from everyone," he once said. He recalled wanting to avoid a confrontation with his father, a former coal miner. Sir Kenneth began his career as both dancer and choreographer, studying at the Sadler's Wells School, now the Royal Ballet School. Early student ballets were followed with his first professional work, "Danses Concertantes" (1955). "The Burrow" and "Agon" (both 1958), "The Invitation" (1960), "Diversions" (1961) and "Le Sacre du Printemps" (1962) met with varying success. But he made an international impact in 1965 with the three-act "Romeo and Juliet," one of several of Sir Kenneth's pieces to treat the theme of doomed lovers. The work became a mainstay of the Royal Ballet in London and the American Ballet Theater. It was danced opening night by Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn and later by Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour, for whom it was devised. Other significant works included "Anastasia" (1971) and "Sleeping Beauty" (1973). Sir Kenneth often cited his lonely childhood for his interest in mismatched lovers, outcasts and cruelty. His 1983 "Valley of the Shadows," based on the 1971 movie "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis," placed its second act in a concentration camp. "Different Drummer" a year later was a crazed meditation on Georg Buchner's tragedy "Woyzeck." In an interview then with the Times of London, Sir Kenneth said: "It's funny how I seem to threaten the way [ballet critics] feel about ballet. I'm not trying to pull it down; I'm just going in another direction." Sir Kenneth the radical could also be an old-style showman, rising to the challenge of a $1 million reworking of "Sleeping Beauty" in 1987 for the American Ballet Theater. His most recent ballets were "The Prince of the Pagodas" (1989), with music by Benjamin Britten; "Winter Dreams" (1990), based on Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters"; and "The Judas Tree," a piece about gang rape choreographed for one woman and 14 men, which opened in March to mixed reviews. Sir Kenneth's last work in Washington was the staging of "The Prince of the Pagodas" Director of Berlin's Deutsch Opera from 1966-1970, he became director of the Royal Ballet in 1970, resigning in 1977 to concentrate on choreography. He leaves his wife, Deborah, an Australian artist, and their daughter, Charlotte, a student at St. Martin's School of Art in London. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM