BBC Dance

BalletBoyz directors Michael Nunn and William Trevitt take you behind the scenes of the making of their first feature film Young Men, a reworking of the company's hugely successful stage production of the same name that premiered at Sadler's Wells London in 2015. The documentary follows the BalletBoyz team as they reimagine the stage show for camera and features interviews with the creative team and cast, including choreographer Iván Pérez and composer Keaton Henson.

Darcey Bussell, for twenty years Britain's premier dancer with the Royal Ballet, was documented at regular intervals throughout her ballet career by BBC cameras and also appeared on many of the corporation's biggest entertainment shows. Darcey tells her own story through a carefully woven choice of archive from her debut appearance on Blue Peter as a 16-year-old in the early 80s to jiving on Strictly Come Dancing following her retirement from the Royal Ballet in 2007. Packed with historic archive performances from the stage of the Royal Opera House and beyond, combined with candid documentary interviews from behind the dressing room door filmed at intervals during her stellar career, this is a celebration and a history of the ballet dancer who grew up in public and conquered television on the way.

This Christmas, step into the magical world of The Nutcracker. For the first time in many years, the Royal Ballet has given full access behind the scenes for a landmark 90-minute documentary as they prepare for this season's yuletide production. This year's Nutcracker marks the debut of one of Britain's brightest young stars, Francesca Hayward, in one of the most famous roles in ballet (and every little girl's dream) - the Sugar Plum Fairy. Stepping into the shoes of the greatest dancers ever to grace the stage - from Darcey Bussell to Margot Fonteyn - we follow her as she prepares to dance the role that made her want to be a ballerina when she was just three years old. The production also sees the debut of numerous young dancers across the company, from its youngest stars at the Royal Ballet School playing the roles of party children and battling mice to the final year students dancing as snowflakes on the journey to the Land of the Sweets. With unprecedented access to the creative departments, from set designers to tutu makers, and including beautiful performance sequences, this film takes the viewer directly into the Royal Ballet during the busiest and most magical time of the year. In so doing, it reveals not just the talent of the dancers, but also the extraordinary team behind the scenes that makes The Nutcracker one of the world's most spectacular ballets.

West Side Story is one of the best-loved musicals of all time. A modern-day Romeo and Juliet, its timeless story and exhilarating dance and music continue to excite audiences around the globe. Songs such as Maria, Somewhere, Tonight and America have all become some of the biggest hits in showbusiness. And yet, West Side Story had an uneasy birth and was even turned away by producers when it was first put together in the 1950s by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents. Now, as the world prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of West Side Story in 2017, dancer Bruno Tonioli and broadcaster Suzy Klein go in search of the true stories behind the inception of this classic show. For the first time on television, they hear first-hand from those involved in the show when it opened on Broadway in September 1957, including Sondheim himself, producer Hal Prince and original cast members from both show and movie, including Chita Rivera Carol Lawrence and Rita Moreno. With the BBC Symphony Orchestra and specially cast singers, we re-live some of the wonderful music and, in the company of Suzy and Bruno, we discover how West Side Story placed the 1950s phenomena of racial tension and teenage gangs centre stage to create a hit that changed musical theatre forever.