Welcome to Dancing Times - Britain's leading monthly dance magazine

In conjuction with our very special issue of Dancing Times, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the publication of our first issue, we have taken the opportunity to re-launch our website, as well as the layout of the magazine. We hope you enjoy the final results!

Dancing Times can state with some pride that throughout the often turbulent century of its existence – two World Wars, the Wall Street Crash and Great Depression, and the current financial crisis – we never missed the publication of a single issue and have remained true to our aims of recording with honesty the events and developments in all aspects of dance. Dancing Times played an instrumental role in the formation of such important teaching bodies as the Royal Academy of Dance and the British Dance Council, and it has witnessed the UK dance scene change beyond all recognition. Just some measure of the love and respect the magazine has garnered can be read in the wonderful tributes published on page 25 of our latest issue. Kathrine Sorley Walker salutes our first editor, Philip Richardson, on page 12 and our beloved editor emeritus, Mary Clarke, is interviewed by Gerald Dowler on page 53. Also in this issue, we interview The Royal Ballet’s Lauren Cuthbertson, look at how dance floors have changed over the years, and preview the 2010 season from Dance Umbrella.

With spring finally sprung, this special issue of Dancing Times marks the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, the ballet that caused a scandal at its first performance by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on the evening of May 29, 1913. Rite went on, in almost unstoppable fashion, to become one of the most significant artistic works of the whole of the 20th century. I am delighted Richard Alston, Stephanie Jordan and Sarah Woodcock have contributed excellent articles on the subject of Rite for this issue, and that Jeannette Andersen, our regular contributor from Munich, was able to travel to Hamburg on our behalf to interview choreographer and director John Neumeier, who owns one of the world's most important private collections of material relating to Vaslav Nijinsky, the choreographer of the very first Rite. It's not just about Rite this month, however, as we also include for you an extensive array of news, views and reviews. We hope you enjoy it.

JONATHAN GRAY, EDITOR