John Cranko resident choreographer for Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet's 1950–51 season. For the company's Festival of Britain season in 1951 Cranko choreographed the comic ballet "Pineapple Poll", to the music of Arthur Sullivan (newly out of copyright) arranged by the conductor Charles Mackerras. Another collaboration with Mackerras followed in 1954 with "The Lady and the Fool", to music by Verdi. In January 1954 Sadler's Wells Ballet announced that Cranko was collaborating with Benjamin Britten to create a ballet. Cranko devised a draft scenario for a work he originally called "The Green Serpent", fusing elements drawn from "King Lear", "Beauty and the Beast"
Royal Winnipeg Ballet and "Svengali" Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet is the first organization to present a theatrical or dance production of the works of Leonard Cohen. During the RWB tenure of Artistic Director Arnold Spohr (1958–1988), in Summer 1970, Brian Macdonald choreographed "The Shining People of Leonard Cohen" which debuted in Paris. That July, it was staged at Canada's National Arts Centre in Ottawa – with eclectic band Lighthouse opening the show. In 2002, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet commissioned American choreographer Val Caniparoli for the first full-length ballet, entitled "Val Caniparoli's A Cinderella Story" using the music of composer Richard Rodgers. "The story