Natalia Osipova, one of ballet’s biggest stars, will join The Royal Ballet as a principal dancer next season. Her first performances will be as Juliet in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, where she will be partnered by Carlos Acosta.

English National Ballet will be the first UK company to present a full-length production of Le Corsaire, opening on tour in October 2013. The production, by Anna-Marie Holmes, was originally created for Boston Ballet in 1997, and will be revised for English National Ballet.

Choreographer Benjamin Millepied will succeed Brigitte Lefèvre as director of the Paris Opéra Ballet, it has been announced. He will take up the position from October 15, 2014.

American Ballet Theatre has announced an artist exchange programme that will bring The Royal Ballet’s Steven McRae (pictured) and the Royal Danish Ballet’s Alban Lendorf to New York for the company’s 2013 Metropolitan Opera House season. In exchange, ABT principal Cory Stearns and soloist Isabella Boylston will appear with The Royal Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet during 2013.

In addition to the feature “Who’s the Boss” printed in the September 2012 issue of Dancing Times, we are publishing on our website a series of supporting interviews between the author, Graham Watts, and those in administrative and artistic leadership within dance companies. The first of these interviews is jointly with Amanda Skoog, the managing director of Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB), and Ethan Stiefel, former principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre and now in his inaugural season as the artistic director of RNZB.

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

La Bayadère

American Ballet Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Washington DC – February 3–5, 2012

Tucked away in a Saturday afternoon matinée at the centre of a weekend mini-season of Natalia Makarova’s production of La Bayadère, padded out on either side by more experienced casts, came a trio of debuts in the leading roles. This protective programming, though understandable, proved an unnecessary precaution for Vadim Muntagirov’s first outing, both with American Ballet Theatre and in this ballet. Americans might describe his guest appearance as a “try-out” but they will never need to do so again, since it was a spectacular debut in every sense, closely matched by Hee Seo’s first reading of the Temple Dancer, Nikiya.   Muntagirov is already confirmed for more performances in ABT’s New York “Met” Season, early this summer; reprising the role of Solor with Seo and partnering Irina Dvorovenko in Swan Lake. Given the lack of strength in depth within ABT’s cohort of male principals (even worse than The Royal Ballet’s current predicament in the same department), it seems that English National Ballet will now be sharing their star danseur across the Atlantic (and elsewhere) on a regular basis.

Weather and Wimbledon caught dance twitterers’ attention this week.

DanceEast has announced the names of 26 aspiring artistic directors who will attend its latest retreat.

Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky has extended his contract with American Ballet Theatre until 2023. Ratmansky became ABT’s artist in residence in 2009, on a five-year contract. His new contract extends his role for another ten years.