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

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

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

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”.

Tony Hall, the new BBC Director-General, has pledged to end a culture of excessive redundancy payments for executives and promised that he will not accept a pay-off if he fails in the post.

The Russian dancer Andrej Uspenski who is a First Artist at the Royal Ballet began taking photographs of his colleagues about two years ago. Now his coffee-table book of photographs, Dancers: Behind the Scenes with the Royal Ballet, which is published next month, gives an insider's view of the Royal Ballet.

Striding on in stilettos or falling out of their clothes, Pina Bausch's women are daring and reckless – until the married couples' waltz

Bodies honed for heavy industry strut like Greek gods, while a cruel young cad reforms too late

As belts continue to tighten, don't be too surprised by a sense of déjà vu, as theatres pad their schedules with known quantities (hello again, 50th-anniversary revival of West Side Story). This may be good news for those who missed, say, Akram Khan's marvellous Desh first and second times around (catch it once and for all at Sadler's Wells in June), or Sutra, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's mesmerising date with 20 plywood cubes, and the Shaolin Monks (Sadler's Wells, March). But it's also good news for Scottish Ballet, who have persuaded Matthew Bourne to let them loose on Highland Fling, his deliciously grungy 1994 update on La Sylphide. It tours four Scottish venues in April and May.

Anna Karenina brushed aside by a streetcar

The Pollard review, which is examining a shelved Newsnight report into the Jimmy Savile abuse allegations, is to take about a month longer to report than expected.

It’s twenty years since Wayne McGregor founded Random dance. He’s celebrating with this programme of new works by young choreographers – from within Random and from the Royal Opera House, where McGregor is resident choreographer of The Royal Ballet.

The BBC has appointed Tony Hall - Lord Hall of Birkenhead - as the new Director General of the corporation.