Summer is finally here, and we can look forward to an exciting season of dance dominated in London by Russian ballet companies. The Mikhailovsky Ballet of St Petersburg arrives at the London Coliseum on July 13, and a week later, the Bolshoi Ballet will be performing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The Moscow company will be dancing a number of works choreographed by Marius Petipa, who died 100 years ago this month, and in this issue of Dancing Times, Nadine Meisner marks the anniversary on page 33 with an article on the great man. On page 13, Gerald Dowler previews the season of a rare visitor to the UK, Caracalla Dance Theatre, which presents its new Zayed and the Dream at the London Coliseum early next month. Also in this issue, Richard Glasstone reports on the Dance Department of the University of Cape Town on page 29, and we publish the concluding part of Dr Lorna Sanders’ GCSE Study Aid on Shobana Jeyasingh’s Faultline. Finally, in Teachers and Training, we embark on reviews of the first of the end of year performances by some of the UK’s leading vocational dance schools and colleges.

Jonathan Gray