Sir Kenneth MacMillan; Choreographer

Sir Kenneth MacMillan, who revived the tradition of full-length ballet in Britain as principal choreographer of the Royal Ballet, has died of a heart attack. He was 62.

MacMillan was stricken Thursday while backstage at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden during a performance of “Mayerling,” his ballet that first was seen in 1978.

Jeremy Isaacs, general director of the Opera House, announced the death from the stage after the performance and asked the audience to “please rise and bow your heads and leave the theater in silence.”

Besides his work in London, MacMillan became artistic associate of the American Ballet Theater in New York in 1984 and assumed a similar title in Houston in 1988.

His theater-directing credits included Eugene Ionesco’s “The Chairs” and “The Lesson” (1982), Strindberg’s “The Dance of Death” (1983) and Tennessee Williams’ “Kingdom of the Earth” (1984). He was working on a revival of “Carousel” that was to open Dec. 10 and mark his debut as a choreographer in musical theater.

MacMillan was knighted in 1983.

The youngest of three children, he was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, into an impoverished family. MacMillan left school at 14 to study ballet in London.

“Ballet then was considered sissy; I had to keep it secret from everyone,” he once said. He recalled wanting to avoid a confrontation with his father, a former coal miner.

He made an international impact in 1965 with the three-act “Romeo and Juliet,” one of several MacMillan pieces to treat the theme of doomed lovers.

The work became a mainstay of the Royal Ballet in London and the American Ballet Theater. Its opening night was danced by Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn and later by Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour, for whom it was created.

Other significant works included “Anastasia” (1971) and “The Sleeping Beauty” (1973).

MacMillan often cited his lonely childhood for his interest in mismatched lovers, outcasts and cruelty.

He is survived by his wife, Deborah, an artist, and their daughter, Charlotte, a student.