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"
Music for an Aquatic Ballet Music for an Aquatic Ballet Music for an Aquatic Ballet is the most commonly used title to refer to an untitled composition by American avant-garde composer John Cage. It was presumably finished in 1938, for its performance at the National Aquatic Show in Los Angeles. Even though the score of the composition is lost and has never been published nor performed after its premiere, some of Cage's fellow musicians have loosely reconstructed it. This composition was commissioned by the Physical Education Department of the University of California, Los Angeles to celebrate the National Aquatic Show at the Olympic Swim Stadium