Next Royal Ballet chief is smiling insider Kevin O'Hare

It may look too safe from the outside, but this is a deft appointment

by Ismene BrownTuesday, 14 June 2011

Kevin O'Hare: a smiling progress through inside management to the top job

There were apparently unanimous whoops of joy inside the Royal Ballet this morning, even as brows were wrinkling perplexedly outside, when it was announced that the likeable No 2, administrative director Kevin O’Hare, will succeed director Dame Monica Mason next year. The smiling insider is to head a team involving two of the world’s leading choreographers, Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor, which holds out the promise of a gold-plated twin-track creative approach uniting both classical and modern. With imminent budget cuts looming, this might be more of a gilt-plated reality, but still, if the personalities gel and Wheeldon and McGregor create several new works for London, the Royal Ballet will be the envy of the world.

O'Hare's background at Birmingham means he has less of the Covent Garden hothouse about him

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