For more than 40 years now, the most talented and renowned dancers have come to Tokyo from around the world to perform in the World Ballet Festival, which will once again be held this summer.
When it was first introduced in 1976 under the leadership of Tadatsugu Sasaki, it was very rare for the star ballerinas of different companies or countries to share a stage. Its first edition caused an international sensation by bringing together three legends, Margot Fonteyn from the UK, Maya Plisetskaya from the Soviet Union and Alicia Alonso from Cuba.