The Royal Ballet arrives Stateside this summer

The Royal Ballet returns to Joyce Theatre for a set of special performances of two programs featuring Frederick Ashton's The Dream and Kenneth MacMillan's Song of the Earth. The Dream first premiered in 1964 as part of a Royal Ballet programme that celebrated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, and Song of the Earth premiered in 1965 after 10 years of wrangling with the ROH to use the accompanying music, Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

The Dream is Frederick Ashton's reimagining of Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night dream, featuring the misadventures of two mortal lovers and a host of mythical creatures. Song of the Earth is a poignant modernist celebration of death and rebirth, with the figure of Death painted as a sympathetic figure rather than one of dread and fear. The third part is a mixed bill devoted to Wayne McGregor's Infra; Liam Scarlett's The Age of Anxiety; and Divertissements, highlights from the company's repertory that include the famed pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon's Aeternum.