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Kenneth MacMillan (1929-1992)

 

Kenneth MacMillan. Source: RAD Archive, Photographer unknown.
By Mary Clarke, editor of The Dancing Times

 

It is no exaggeration to say that Kenneth MacMillan, through his choreography and through his choice of subject matter, pushed back the frontiers of ballet. Other choreographers before him explored human relationships but none ventured so bravely and so widely into complex and often tragic situations, with some characters called from literature, some from his own imagination and some from real life. 

Born in Dunfermline on December 11th 1929, MacMillan grew up in Great Yarmouth where he took lessons from Phyllis Adams. After a mere nine months study he applied for a scholarship to the Sadler's Wells (now Royal Ballet School) and was accepted. After only a further year of study he became a further member of the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, for which he made his first experimental workshop ballets. Their success and their promise led de Valois to commission the Stravinsky ballet, Danses Concertantes (1955). 

Thereafter, MacMillan danced with the Covent Garden company (he was a fine classical dancer), returned to the Wells and gradually abandoned dancing for his true vocation - choreography. In The Burrow, based on Kafka's story, he discovered the dramatic gifts of a young Canadian dancer, Lynn Seymour, who was to become his muse. In The Invitation (1960), he gave her a role of such intensity that it established her as one of the great actress-ballerinas of our time. 

During a period of remarkable creativity, he seemed to turn with ease from plotless ballets like Diversions and Symphony to big company works such as The Rite of Spring (1962), which was made for Monica Mason. Then in 1965 came MacMillan's first full-length ballet, Romeo and Juliet, for Seymour and Christopher Gable. The full-evening ballet became a challenge MacMillan was to face on many more occasions - in the epic Anastasia for Seymour, in Manon with its wonderful ballerina role created by Antoinette Sibley, in Mayerlingwhich dealt so compassionately with the story of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (David Wall) in Isadora about the life of Isadora Duncan (Merle Park), and in The Prince of the Pagodas (Darcey Bussell). In addition, he continued to make one-act ballet s for the Royal Ballet, of which he was both Artistic Director (1970-77) and Principal Choreographer (1977-92) amongst them Elite Syncopations, My Brother, My Sisters, La Fin du Jour, Valley of Shadows, Gloria, and Different Drummer. 

MacMillan created Winter Dreams for Irek Mukhamedov and Bussell, then gave him the leading role in The Judas Tree, with Viviana Durante (this work won the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for the best new dance production). It was during the first night of a revival of Mayerling, in October 1992, that MacMillan suffered a heart attack and died. 

MacMillan also created ballets in Stuttgart (Song of the Earth and Requiem), served as director of ballet at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, and was Artistic Associate of American Ballet Theatre (1984-89) and Houston Ballet (1989-92). He directed plays and worked on award-winning television productions. His last choreography was for the National Theatre's production of Carousel, for which he won a Tony Award on Broadway. He was much honoured for his services to British ballet, culminating in his knighthood in 1983. In 1993 he was given a special Laurence Olivier Award for lifetime achievement, accepted by his daughter Charlotte. He is also survived by his widow, the artist Deborah MacMillan, who realised The Royal Ballet's new production of Anastasia in May 1996 and is responsible for all revivals of his ballets. 

© Mary Clarke. Mary Clarke is editor of The Dancing Times.