The Ballet of La Scala, Milan has announced its plans for the 2013–14 season. It will open on December 17 with an evening of works by Alexei Ratmansky, including Concerto DSCH, Russian Seasons and a new work. Performers will include Svetlana Zakharova, Roberto Bolle and Massimo Murru.

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 Bolshoi Ballet has announced repertory and some casting for its London season, which runs from July 29 to August 17 at the Royal Opera House. The visit will include guest performances by former Bolshoi stars Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev (pictured), plus the first foreign performances of the company’s new Sleeping Beauty.

 

Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, has been the victim of an acid attack, the New York Times reports. On January 17, Filin was opening the gate to his home when a masked man shouted his name and threw the contents of a bottle in his face. Filin has third degree burns, and his eyesight is threatened.

Sadler’s Wells has announced highlights of next year’s programme. 2013 will be the 15th anniversary of the London venue’s current building, and will be marked by several special events. All 14 of the theatre’s associate artists will contribute to this year’s programme, which will also feature the return of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, a celebration of The Rite of Spring and a visit from the National Ballet of Canada.

Alexei Ratmansky (pictured) will choreograph a new three-part work for American Ballet Theatre, where he is artist in residence.

Irek Mukhamedov and Alban Lendorf will be dancing in the UK this summer, appearing in the Peter Schaufuss Ballet’s Tchaikovsky Trilogy at the London Coliseum. When Zoë Anderson spoke to them for July’s Dancing Times, they had plenty to say, including this discussion of choreographers.

Jonathan Gray journeyed to Tbilisi in Georgia, to see the celebrations marking Nina Ananiashvili’s 30 years on stage. Here, he offers a personal tribute to a great ballerina

 

Not so very long ago, it was not unusual for a ballerina’s career to last well into her forties and beyond – just think of some of the great names from the past, like Anna Pavlova, Galina Ulanova, Margot Fonteyn, Maya Plisetskaya, Antoinette Sibley or Lynn Seymour.

The dance programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival will include the Maryinsky Ballet (pictured), Angelin Preljocaj’s company, Deborah Colker Dance Company, Juillard Dance and more.

The Royal Ballet has announced its plans for the 2012/13 season, Kevin O’Hare’s first as director. It includes six world premieres, with new works by Alexei Ratmansky, Alastair Marriott, Christopher Wheeldon, Liam Scarlett and two by Wayne McGregor – including his first ever narrative work. There will also be company premieres of works by Wheeldon and Scarlett, and revivals of works by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, John Cranko and Wheeldon, and of 19th-century classics.