Andrew McNicol, commissioned choreographer for The Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition 2024, is a British choreographer who has made work for the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, the Royal Ballet in London, the Royal Ballet of Flanders and many more. In 2021 he launched his own company, the McNicol Ballet Collective. For the Fonteyn, he created two solos, one male (set to Valse Poéticos by Enrique Granados), one female (to Edvard Grieg’s Hollberg Suite). All the candidates learned the variations, and the finalists performed them at His Majesty’s Theatre.

How do you create new classical solos from scratch – and make sure they fit and challenge all these eager dancers? And what is it like for young dancers, working with a leading choreographer to shape new work?

Dance Gazette goes behind the scenes at The Fonteyn to meet Andrew McNicol and some of the young dancers: Jessica Gilmour (from Scotland), Alexia Munn (South Africa), Eireen Reyes (Mexico) and Soraya Sullivan (Australia). They tell us about the process of creating world premieres for The Fonteyn.

Interviews by David Jays and produced by Sarah Myles.