2013 marks 75 years since the birth of Rudolf Nureyev, twenty since his death. English National Ballet’s new triple bill pays tribute to one of ballet’s greatest stars, and to the range of his career, which stretched from classicism of his Russian schooling to the new and older ballets he discovered on defecting to the west. ENB’s tribute is wide in scope but patchy in execution.

I was hooked on ballet from an early age I was five, watching a class all dressed in pale-pink led by a thin, beautiful teacher dressed in burgundy. She was so different from the other teachers at my school, who were nuns. My parents didn't want me to do ballet, so I insisted until they gave up: I used crying and all the manipulative tricks little kids have.

Death comes during a period of high drama for the theatre

Some shows just seem to be doomed. On opening night, the Russian Seasons of XXI Century dropped one production due to injury, then added an unscheduled interval while they tried to fix the lighting. Technical hitches aside, it was a ramshackle night of dubious revivals and recorded music. The bright spot was British-born guest star Xander Parish, dancing with bold conviction.

Jealousy, enmity, passion ... and then the dancing starts

He was the Royal Ballet's youngest male principal at 21 and danced with Dame Margot Fonteyn

Five years from now, popular cinema may have shaken off its infatuation with 3D, but for the moment, the movers and shakers are in thrall to its peculiar approximation of the way the eye sees things for real.

One of the showpiece productions of the forthcoming Royal Opera season is in turmoil after artistic differences saw the Royal Ballet pull out of Les Vêpres Siciliennes just months before opening night.

The Royal Ballet's new fledgling may well grow to rival that famous swan, but a tribute to 'Rite of Spring' doesn't take off

Royal Opera House, London:

Bestselling author Audrey Niffenegger talks to Jessica Duchen about having her dark fable Raven Girl brought to life by Royal Ballet choreographer Wayne McGregor

The world-famous dancer and former star of the Royal Ballet, Sylvie Guillem, has strongly criticised Britain’s biggest dance company, and revealed her dislike of its recently departed director, in an astonishingly frank interview with The Independent.

History rarely supplies plots for full-evening ballets, and with good reason. Dance tends to be strong on feeling, weak on facts. As George Balanchine once drolly observed, ballet has no way of saying “this is my mother-in-law”.

The 26-year-old formerly danced for the Bolshoi Ballet