TODAY 60 YEARS AGO John Cranko was appointed Ballet Director of the Württemberg State Theatres. The then 33-year-old was considered a talented shooting star from the Royal Ballet in London. At the end of 1960, he had been invited to stage his ballet The Prince of the Pagodas in Stuttgart. As Cranko was not averse to leaving Great Britain, the General Director of the theatre Walter Erich Schäfer asked him to succeed Nicholas Beriozoff as director of the ballet. From that moment on, things progressed very quickly: only ten weeks and one day after the premiere of The Prince of the Pagodas, he took up his new post, and two months later he brought his first programme to stage. He kept up the rapid pace and in the only 12 years he had left on earth, he formed a world-famous ballet company with beloved and acclaimed classics that are still danced today.

Photo: The Stuttgart Ballet with Walter Erich Schäfer and John Cranko, © Gundel Kilian