The King Dances

Birmingham Royal Ballet: Max Maslen as Le Roi and Tyrone Singleton as La Nuit with Artists of the Company; photo: Andrew Ross

MUSIC Stephen Montague
DESIGNS Katrina Lindsay
LIGHTING Peter Mumford

For many years I was fascinated by Louis XIV and the beginnings of ballet in the 17th-Century courts of France and Italy. When I heard Stephen Montague’s Intrada in concert on the radio, it instantly put me in mind of Louis and I asked him to write a score, based around that piece, for The King Dances.

The ballet itself was also inspired by Le Ballet de la Nuit, the dance spectacle in which the newly crowned boy king first appeared as Apollo earning him the soubriquet, Le Roi Soleil, the Sun King.

The ballet is for an all-male cast, all roles in Louis’ day being danced by men and boys, with the exception of Selene, the Moon goddess. When I heard Stephen’s music for her I got cold feet and compromised, but perhaps at some point in the future I might revisit this decision! The ballet was filmed and accompanied a BBC documentary that I presented, on Louis XIV.