English National Ballet

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English National Ballet, founded in 1950 as the "Festival Ballet" inspired by the then imminent Festival of Britain, is one of the leading ballet companies in the United Kingdom founded by Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin, with the financial backing of Polish impresario Julian Braunsweg, Wayne Eagling is the current Artistic Director.

1 Performance and touring
- 1.1 England
- 1.2 International touring
2 Staff
- 2.1 Controversy
3 See also
4 Notes
5 External links

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The Snow Queen

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Christmas at the Coliseum

[edit] Performance and touring

Dolin as Artistic Director gave the Company its focus as a touring organisation in its first decade, it sought to take classical ballet to new, and established, audiences throughout the country, at affordable prices. He also introduced outreach and education programmes to develop new audiences; in the 1950s, Dolin and his dancers would visit schools to talk about dance. Continuing Dolin's work today, the Company has a dedicated Education and Community team whose activities range from year-long projects to one-off workshops with schools and communities nation-wide.

As well as performing the traditional ballet favourites, the National Ballet's former Artistic Director, Matz Skoog, emphasized new works - commissions included works by British choreographers Michael Corder (Melody on the Move), Wayne McGregor (2 Human) and Christopher Hampson (Double Concerto).

Matz's work was recognised at the Critics' Circle National Dance Awards in January 2004, when the Company won the "Outstanding Repertoire" (classical category) award.

[edit] England

English National Ballet tours extensively throughout England and presents two high-profile seasons in London; at the London Coliseum at Christmas and, with huge arena productions, at the Royal Albert Hall in the Summer, most famously Swan Lake[2]. Overseas tours are a regular part of the annual performance programme.

On 1 July 2007, English National Ballet performed at a Concert for the late Princess Diana at Wembley Stadium, as part of the celebrations of their former Patron's life.^[1] The orchestra for the concert was English National Ballet's orchestra, and the dancers also performed as backing for Take That's performance of "Shine".

[edit] International touring

In 1951 the Company began to tour abroad, quickly becoming a cultural ambassador (appearing on Eurovision in 1956, when its performance of Etudes at the gala to celebrate the wedding of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly was transmitted). In its first 15 years, the Company was seen throughout Europe, the Middle East and in North and South America. It was also the first major ballet company to perform in Israel. English National Ballet continues to tour internationally today and in recent years has visited Australia, the Far East and Japan. Since 2004, the Company has travelled to Dubai, Athens, Madrid and Taipei, and in July 2007 performed on the lake in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles. You can see video from Versailles on their site, [3].

In December 2007, English National Ballet's Thomas Edur and Agnes Oaks danced the pas de deux from the Nutcracker ^[2] at the Royal Variety Performance.

English National Ballet commissioned a new full length ballet for Autumn 2007,^[3] with choreography by Michael Corder to Prokofiev's score for The Stone Flower adapted by Julian Philips. This toured the UK before sell out performances at the London Coliseum in December.

The Company will perform a second new production in 2008, Strictly Gershwin^[4], at the Royal Albert Hall in June.

English National Ballet also produced Angelina Ballerina's very first live ballet which undertook a 22 venue tour from September 2007, and has another tour to 24 UK venues from February until June 2008. This ballet is aimed at children from the age of 3 and features eight of the dancers of the Company. There is a short promo clip here: Angelina Ballerina clip.

[edit] Staff

Senior Principal dancers are Estonian Agnes Oaks and Thomas Edur, Georgian Elena Glurdjidze, Czech Daria Klimentova, Japanese Erina Takahashi and Russian Dmitri Gruzdyev. Principal dancers are English dancers Sarah McIlroy and Simone Clarke, Chilean Cesar Morales, Cubans Arionel Vargas, Yat-Sen Chang and Yosvani Ramos and Brazilian Fernanda Oliveira. Past dancers have included Spanish Tamara Rojo,Cuban Carlos Acosta and Italians Roberto Bolle and Ambra Vallo. Guest artists include Sofiane Sylve and Friedemann Vogel, both of whom performed Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall.

[edit] Controversy

Principal dancer Simone Clarke was revealed by the Guardian newspaper to be a member of the far right British National Party. She then proceeded to publicly state:

"I have been labelled a racist and a fascist," she said, "because I have a view on immigration - and I mean mass immigration - but isn't that something that a lot of people worry about"?

"It's not about removing foreigners. It's about border controls," she added.

"I don't regret anything. I will stay a member."^[5]

Clarke has a daughter with her partner Yat-Sen Chang, who is a Chinese-Cuban immigrant. English National Ballet issued a statement following these revelations, saying that "English National Ballet does not comment on political affiliations of any of its employees nor any other aspects of their personal lives. English National Ballet is an equal opportunities employer and prides itself in the ethnic diversity of all its employees."