Inevitably this month’s issue is dominated by Darcey Bussell. Seldom can a ballerina have captured so totally the attention and the plaudits of the media – press, television, radio. It is a pleasure to record our admiration and gratitude for her career in classical ballet and to illustrate some highlights of the closing performances of that career. But despite some tears being shed, and despite some gloom and doom being expressed, we must insist (and are confident Darcey Bussell would agree) that her departure is not a body blow to the future of The Royal Ballet. She shone with a very bright light but she was always a member of the company. Her guest performances overseas were everywhere triumphant but she always returned home, enriching some of her performances with experience gained from working with such companies as the Kirov and New York City Ballet (she was a glorious Balanchine dancer). But she is not irreplaceable. The company at present is rich in young talent, ready and eager to contribute (as they already do) to the continuation and development of the company’s great repertory. Moreover, The Royal Ballet School is now producing yet another generation of potential successors. Here, we think it important to stress that some of that emerging talent has come to this country from overseas. Some newspapers delight in proclaiming that the company (and its school) are no longer dominated by British born dancers. But they never were. Monica Mason, herself a South African, has always recognised the huge input the company gained from dancers from the former Commonwealth – as early as 1933 Ninette de Valois welcomed Robert Helpmann from Australia. Now we can draw from Europe, and elsewhere, and it has been remarkable to see how artists reared in another tradition can absorb and enrich Royal Ballet style. It is to the guardians of that style, brought in increasingly by Monica Mason to coach and rehearse, that we, and she, will look to sustaining and enriching the post-Darcey Bussell era of the company.