The British Ballet Charity Gala ONLINE

The best of British ballet comes together at the Royal Albert Hall for a glittering charity gala, hosted by Dame Darcey Bussell, herself a much-loved former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, and television presenter and Strictly Come Dancing winner, Ore Oduba.

The past Covid-19-afflicted year has wreaked havoc on all the performing arts. Dance has been particularly battered: dancers, who require regular training and performing to keep in top physical form, were reduced to doing class via Zoom in their own homes; and smaller companies and freelance artists saw the writing on the wall with every day of lockdown.

Now, though, they're back for a celebration of the sector's resilience and the joy of dancing in a charity gala, the proceeds from which will be shared primarily between the participating companies, with each company further nominating a community dance group of their choice who will receive a waterfall donation. With small donations being made to three other contributing charities, the Gala will benefit a total of 19 charities.

The top eight dance companies in the UK will perform works from their own repertoire, to music played live by the Royal Ballet Symphony conducted by Paul Murphy.

The Royal Ballet will be there, as will its sister company Birmingham Royal Ballet, whose director, Carlos Acosta, assures us it will be 'a wonderful evening of world-class ballet, supporting the arts and live performance.'

English National Ballet will be there, too; and so will Sir Matthew Bourne's New Adventures offering its very own mischievous and iconoclastic take on classical ballet.

Scottish Ballet and Northern Ballet will make rare forays into London from their homes in Glasgow and Leeds respectively; also performing will be Ballet Black, Cassa Pancho's small ensemble for dancers of African and Asian heritage, which continues to punch well above its weight.

Rambert will perform, as well as providing the gala's finale, a spectacular new work especially choreographed by Rambert dancers Simone Damberg Würtz and Daniel Davidson, that brings all of the participating companies together on film.

The event will be filmed by BalletBoyz Productions and first streamed on Friday 18 June at 7pm on the ROH and ENB streaming platforms.