Tamara Rojo danced her farewell performance with The Royal Ballet in the current run of Frederick Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand last night, partnered by Sergei Polunin.

The Royal Ballet has announced that Russian ballerina Natalia Osipova will dance with the company as a guest artist in Swan Lake on October 10, 13 and 25. Osipova, one of the most exciting ballerinas of her generation, will be partnered by principal guest artist Carlos Acosta.

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 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.

BBC Four celebrates dance this weekend, with documentaries and filmed performances, from Margot Fonteyn and Merce Cunningham to the Javier De Frutos/Pet Shop Boys collaboration The Most Incredible Thing.

BBC Four celebrates dance this weekend, with documentaries and filmed performances, from Margot Fonteyn and Merce Cunningham to the Javier De Frutos/Pet Shop Boys collaboration The Most Incredible Thing.

2011–2012 will be Monica Mason’s final season as director of The Royal Ballet. This is, she explains, “a case of ‘Director’s Choice’ – I’ve included a lot of things that have been particularly special to me, and also one or two that might not appear again for a while.”