Revealing a master. (News).

"Kenneth would be roaring with laughter listening to all this analysis of his works," proclaimed his widow, Lady Deborah MacMillan, at the end of a two-day conference on Sir Kenneth MacMillan's work and life. "But he would have been very touched to have seen the master classes presented today--`his' dancers handing down their knowledge to a new generation of dancers."

It was ten years ago that MacMillan, one of Britain's greatest choreographers--and certainly the most controversial--succumbed to a heart attack backstage at the Royal Opera House during the opening night of The Royal Ballet's revival of Mayerling. To celebrate his invaluable contribution to the dance world, the Royal Academy of Dance hosted "Revealing MacMillan" on October 12 and 13 at its headquarters in Battersea, London. Several dance writers offered papers on differing topics, while dancers who had worked with MacMillan returned to share their personal memories and experiences of him. And what a lineup it was: Lynn Seymour, his muse for so many early ballets; Sir Peter Wright; David Wall, who created Lescaut in Manon and Rudolph in Mayerling; Wayne Eagling; Birgit Keil from Stuttgart, who created roles in Song of the Earth, Requiem, and Las Hermanas; Darcey Bussell, who was MacMillan's last muse, creating Rose in Prince of the Pagodas and Masha in Winter Dreams (where she was partnered by then newly defected ex-Bolshoi super-principal Irek Mukhamedov); Dame Antoinette Sibley; Sir Anthony Dowell; and Monica Mason, now the acting director of The Royal Ballet but remembered for her dancing and especially her splendid Chosen Maiden in The Rite of Spring.

Each one of the ten excellent paper sand various panels offered different aspects of MacMillan and his exploration of the psychological motivations of his characters, which broke the boundaries of balletic tradition with raw, often brutal and explicitly sexual exposes of real life in the twentieth century. "He was a close observer," noted Lady MacMillan. "The spy in the canteen who looked constantly at real-life events was triggered by peoples' quirky behavior, and then [he] recreated them in the studio."

Because of excellent planning, the two eight-hour days flew, but for the participants and observers, the favorite moments were the master classes. Seymour handed down her expertise to two young Royal dancers--Mara Galeazzi and Edward Watson--daring them to take risks and race across the floor to each other in the balcony pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet. Mason and Donald MacLeary taught a pas de deux from The Song of the Earth to principals Tamara Rojo and Jonathan Cope, while Dowell and Sibley rekindled wondrous moments from the bedroom scene from Manon with today's two RB pin-ups, Alina Cojocaru and Ivan Putrov. Even with these delicious young dancers, up close and so beautiful, the older duo took the spotlight, becoming absorbed in their demonstrations and completely overwhelming the audience with their elegance and dramatic skills. MacMillan would have loved it.

There have been other tributes to MacMillan in London--the National Film Theatre screened some of his works; the Theatre Museum staged an exhibition titled "Kenneth MacMillan--The Outsider," which embraced the choreographer's dance and theatrical genius; while the Royal Opera House concentrated on the rise of MacMillan from a reluctant dancer to choreographer through an exhibit of costumes, photos, and designs. And of course, The Royal's repertoire this season includes several of his ballets.