Few would think of Giselle, the most famous of all Romantic ballets, as an autumn ballet – but it is. The ballet’s first act is filled with the joy and dances traditionally associated with this season. Its second act is full of the darker emotions we associate with autumn: as nature prepares for winter, the trees shed their leaves and appear to be dying. The legend of the Wilis (dead dancing-girls) that inspired the ballet is very appropriate for Halloween.

On 5, 6 and 12 September 2022, London celebrated the iconic dancer Rudolf Nureyev (1938 – 1993) at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Nureyev was the first international ballet superstar. Even people who knew nothing about ballet knew Rudolf Nureyev. Nureyev’s legend started with a scandal. His curiosity almost ruined him.

Life can change overnight. As one of the Bolshoi Theatre’s leading ballerinas, Russian ballerina Olga Smirnova was a national hero, a glamorous icon of Russian culture. But from one day to the next, she became an outcast and traitor in the eyes of the Russian government – and an international hero and symbol of artistic and human integrity in the eyes of the world.