Step by Step Guides


  • Scottish Ballet

    The comeback kid of British ballet. Initially sure-footed, the company spent years teetering precariously in different directions, but after hitting rock bottom it was whipped back into shape. Now it’s a kickass outfit.


  • Birmingham Royal Ballet

    Birmingham Royal Ballet is like a moon that became a planet: after decades of wobbly orbiting around the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, it finally broke free and became its own centre of gravity.


  • Davies, Siobhan

    Sophisticated, complex and nuanced, Siobhan Davies’s work is a taste to be savoured. Some prefer the stimulus of more immediate, recognisable flavours, but her subtly sensual choreography seeps into your pores.


  • American Ballet Theatre

    American Ballet Theatre is the Hollywood of the ballet world. A cultural powerhouse with commercial imperatives, it is both image- and audience-conscious, and (in a list that reads like the ballet walk of fame) attracts the biggest stars in the business.


  • Northern Ballet Theatre

    Hard-working and plain-speaking, this indomitable troupe may not be as posh as the larger, well-heeled ballet companies that hog the limelight, but their trademark story ballets have attracted a devoted following.


  • Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Les

    Blokes being ballerinas. That’s the USP of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, but their shows are so much more than that …


  • Rambert Dance Company

    Rambert Dance company has had as much talent as it has tribulations. The longest-standing dance company in the country, it has the chequered past of an old dog – but that’s never stopped it from learning new tricks.


  • Oguike, Henri

    Henri Oguike is a leopard who can change his spots. His work is always inspired by music, always sleek and technically accomplished, but his colours and patterns change drastically from piece to piece.


  • Candoco

    A company of disabled and non-disabled dancers, Candoco was never going to settle for sideshow status: it was main billing or nothing. And now, they’re players on the world stage.


  • Royal Ballet

    The Royal Ballet is a princess who was once a pauper. Born in lowly circumstances, without the aristocratic heritage of the Mariinsky or the Paris Opera Ballet, she earned her crown with a mix of dazzling work and wilfulness.