The Royal Ballet

The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. It is the largest of the three major ballet companies in Great Britain. 
The Royal Ballet was founded from what was the Vic-Wells Ballet, a company founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois and Lilian Baylis. It became the resident ballet company of the Royal Opera House in 1946, and was granted a Royal Charter in 1956. It is recognised as Britain's flagship national ballet company. 
The Royal Ballet employs about 100 dancers and has purpose built facilities in the Royal Opera House. The official school of the company is the Royal Ballet School, and The Royal Birmingham Ballet is an associate company. The "prima ballerina assoluta" of the Royal Ballet is the late Dame Margot Fonteyn.
The Royal Ballet's Principal Dancers come from all over the world. The leading male dancer at the moment is the Cuban Carlos Acosta. One of the leading ballerinas is Alina Cojocaru, a dancer of Romanian origin who was trained at the Mariinsky Ballet School.