Anastasia is a powerful three-act ballet which tells the true story of Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and sole survivor of the brutal assassination of the Russian Royal Family in 1918. This most experimental and haunting of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballets will be screened live to cinemas on Wednesday 2 November 2016.

Last performed by the Company in 2004, the majority of the dancers will be dancing the lead roles for the first time. Principal dancers making their debuts include Natalia Osipova, Lauren Cuthbertson and Laura Morera as Anastasia, and Marianela Nuñez, Sarah Lamb and the newly promoted Akane Takada in the virtuoso role of Mathilde Kschessinska. Former Royal Ballet Principal Viviana Durante, who danced the title role in 1996, returns to coach the new generation of dramatic interpreters in this landmark revival.

MacMillan created the ballet in 1967 as a raw, expressionist one-act piece for Deutsche Oper Ballet, depicting Anderson’s identity crisis as she grapples with her memories in an asylum, set to haunting music by Bohuslav Martinů. Two preceding acts were later added in 1971 with music by Tchaikovsky and then restaged in 1996 with designs by Bob Crowley that bring to life the opulence and splendour of the Romanov family’s cosseted imperial world, providing a stark contrast between the lavish Romanov court under Tsar Nicholas II and the sparse, gritty psychodrama in act III as Anderson’s façade unravels in a gloomy hospital ward.

This production is the first ballet to be screened as part of the Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season 2016/17 on Wednesday 2 November.

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Anastasia is generously supported by Hans and Julia Rausing, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Richard and Delia Baker, The Tsukanov Family Foundation, Simon and Virginia Robertson and The Fonteyn Circle