Today is Ross Stretton's first day as Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet – only the 6th Director since they were originally formed as the Vic-Wells Ballet back in 1931.

Ballet.co would like to welcome Ross to London, the company and some of its most ardent, and less ardent fans! It’s been a while since there was such a change and we thought it would be useful to jot down just a few of the things ballet-goers would like to see happen in the next year or two...

• more heritage works by the likes of Ashton, Macmillan, Tudor, Cranko,
  Balanchine and a long list of others
  
• new productions of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Nutcracker
  
• more modern works by Forsythe, Preljocaj, and a long list of British dance choreographers
  
• in all about 50% more performances per year should do it
  
• access to be improved by reducing seat prices 50%
  
• more international stars
  
• more soloists promoted to Principal (though we will not be able to agree on which ones)
  
• fewer dancer brought in from outside
  
• dancers to be rewarded properly with an instant pay rise...
  
• ... funded in part by the orchestra being paid less for not bothering for ballet
  
• sandwich prices to be reduced to £2.50 and bottles of white wine to £6
  
• and finally casting, once given, never ever to be subsequently changed
  

That's probably a fair enough list for starters but I'm sure our readers might well think of a few more wrongs that need to be righted yet. However if you can deliver on those I'm sure you will have our full and unstinting support - at least until the next set of promotions is announced!

Seriously we all wish you, and RB the very, very best wishes for the future.

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Some Links might be useful

The Ballet.co interview with Ross Stretton
http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_00/apr00/interview_ross_stretton.htm

All Stretton interviews
http://www.ballet.co.uk/cgi/theviews_db_search/db_search.cgi?title=Stretton

Stretton named in any Interview or News piece (38 entries):
http://www.ballet.co.uk/cgi/theviews_db_search/db_search.cgi?names=Stretton

Last 6 months of RB Reviews:
http://www.ballet.co.uk/cgi/reviews_database_search/db_search.cgi?company_names=RB&exact_match=on&first_days_old=180