Tamara Nijinsky, the 93-year-old daughter of Vaslav and Romola Nijinsky, is to receive legal recognition for her father’s celebrated ballet, The Rite of Spring, at the centenary performance in Paris this month.

Victoria Marr, first soloist with Birmingham Royal Ballet, will be dancing her very last performance with the company, as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis in Giselle, at Birmingham Hippodrome in June.

Birmingham Royal Ballet has announced plans for the 2013–14 season, including the UK premiere of David Bintley’s The Prince of the Pagodas (pictured), rare Frederick Ashton revivals and works by Bintley, John Cranko, George Balanchine and Kenneth MacMillan. Performances at Birmingham Hippodrome and some tour dates have been confirmed, with more performances to be announced.

After 21 years with The Royal Ballet, Leanne Benjamin will retire in July 2013, at the end of the current season. Her last performance will be on July 10, in A Gala Evening with The Royal Ballet at the Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo as part of the company’s summer tour. Her final UK performance will be in Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling, at the Royal Opera House on June 15. She will dance Mary Vetsera – the role in which she made her debut with the company.

The Royal Ballet’s 2013-14 season was announced today. Kevin O’Hare (pictured), the company’s artistic director, introduces the season in conversation with Zoë Anderson. For more from this interview, see the April issue of Dancing Times.

The Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for 2012 were held at The Place on Monday, January 28. Hosted by Gary Avis of The Royal Ballet and KennethTharp of The Place, the awards celebrated a broad spread of dance performances in Britain, from hip hop to narrative ballet. Tharp and Avis opened with a touch of showbiz, dancing on with a flourish. This year’s awards were dedicated to the memory of critics John Percival, Charles Hedges and Freda Pitt.

Twenty dancers have been chosen to take part in Dance UK’s leadership mentoring scheme. The programme offers workforce development for mid-career dancers who have been nominated by their peers as future leaders. It is organised by by Dance UK in partnership with Dancers’ Career Development, with the support of Arts Council England. Over eight months, each dancer will be provided with a paid mentor who is a high-profile leader from the arts world or beyond.

In an open letter to Michael Gove, secretary of state for education, published in the Daily Telegraph on October 18, leading figures in the UK dance community have expressed concern at the exclusion of dance, along with other arts subjects, from the syllabus of the newly-proposed English Baccalaureate that will be introduced as a replacement for GCSE examinations from 2015 onwards. We reproduce below the letter in full.

The London Coliseum has announced its dance performances for spring and summer 2013. The programme includes visits from overseas companies the Mikhailovsky Ballet and Boston Ballet, plus seasons by Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Ballet.

Since retiring as a first soloist with The Royal Ballet, Isabel McMeekan has set up Everybody Ballet. The company offers adult ballet classes for beginners, as well as private coaching for students of all ages.