[1] It became the resident ballet company of the Royal Opera House in 1946, and has purpose-built facilities within these premises.

Ninette de Valois, an Irish-born dancer founded the Academy of Choreographic Art, in 1926, a dance school for girls.

[2] Her intention was to form a repertory ballet company and school, leading her to collaborate with the English theatrical producer and theatre owner Lilian Baylis.

Baylis owned the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres and in 1925 she engaged de Valois to stage dance performances at both venues.

To stage these ballets with her newly formed company, de Valois employed Nicholas Sergeyev, a former régisseur of the Imperial.

Created with the aid of choreographic notation written in St Petersburg at the turn of the 20th century, these works have been included in the repertoire of the Royal Ballet ever since.

Margot Fonteyn trained at the Royal Ballet School and spent her entire career with the company.

After dancing with the company for four years, she was later appointed prima ballerina assoluta of La Scala Theatre Ballet in Milan.

The title of guest artist is given to a visiting dancer who has been cast in a role for a specific ballet or limited season.

[8] The company also has an Executive, Artistic and Music staff, including the following:[9] Sir Frederick Ashton was the founder choreographer of the Royal Ballet.

He created the majority of the company's early works and staged their first performance at the Royal Opera House, a production of The Sleeping Beauty in 1946.

His first choreography for the Royal Ballet, was Fleur de Peux, a solo work created in 2000 on Viviana Durante.

McGregor was appointed Resident Choreographer of the Royal Ballet in 2006, the first person to hold the post in sixteen years, and the first to be selected from the world of contemporary dance.

On 12 March 1963, the couple premiered Sir Frederick Ashton's Marguerite and Armand, the first ballet created for them and one that become their signature piece.

Performed to a piece of piano music by Franz Liszt, the ballet starts with Marguerite on her deathbed, and the story is told in flashback until the moment Armand arrives to hold her for the last time before she dies.

Against the wishes of Frederick Ashton that it not be performed by any other dancers than Fonteyn and Nureyev, it was revived as part of a Royal Ballet triple-bill, starring Nureyev's protegee Sylvie Guillem and the Royal Ballet star Jonathan Cope.

In 1970 after Frederick Ashton retired as artistic director of the Royal Ballet, there were many calls for Nureyev to be announced as his successor.

I plan to bring together the most talented artists of the 21st century to collaborate on the same stage – world class dancers, choreographers, designers, and musicians.

I will aim to use all the traditional and new platforms now available to engage our audiences in our classic repertoire, and The Royal Ballet's unique heritage.

I want to continue to invigorate audiences with new work and emerging talents and I am thrilled that Wayne McGregor and Christopher Wheeldon – two of the world’s leading choreographers – have agreed to join me and Jeanetta Laurence, Associate Director to become part of the senior artistic team.

The proposals would have established the Palace Theatre as a designated base for the Royal Opera House companies in the North of England.

[20][21][22] The proposals were approved by the then Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Andy Burnham MP, and was accepted by a number of public bodies.