English National Ballet
English National Ballet | |
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General information | |
Name | English National Ballet |
Previous names |
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Year founded | 1950 |
Founders |
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Patron | HRH The Duke of York |
Principal venue | Markova House 39 Jay Mews London England SW7 2ES UK |
Website | www.ballet.org.uk |
Senior staff | |
Chief Executive | Patrick Harrison |
Director | Tamara Rojo |
Ballet Staff | Associate Artist Director: Loipa Araújo Principal Ballet Master and Character Artist: Irek Mukhamedov Ballet Mistress: Hua Fang Zhang Ballet Master and Repetiteur: Antonio Castilla Repetiteur: Yohei Sasaki Artistic Co-ordinator: Jane Haworth |
Artistic staff | |
Artistic Director | Tamara Rojo |
Music Director | Gavin Sutherland |
Other | |
Official school | English National Ballet School |
Formation | Lead Principal Principal Character Artist First Soloist Soloist Junior Soloist First Artist Artist |
English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin and based at Markova House in South Kensington, London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Scottish Ballet, it is one of the four major ballet companies in Great Britain. English National Ballet is one of the foremost touring companies in Europe, performing in theatres throughout the UK as well as conducting international tours and performing at special events. The Company employs approximately 67 dancers and a symphony orchestra, (English National Ballet Philharmonic) and there is also an associate school, English National Ballet School, which is independent from the ballet company. The Company regularly performs seasons at the London Coliseum and has been noted for specially staged performances at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2014 English National Ballet became an Associate Company of Sadler's Wells. The Patron of English National Ballet is HRH The Duke of York.
Contents
1 History
2 People
3 Dancers
3.1 Lead principals
3.2 Principals
3.3 Guest artists
3.4 Character artists
3.5 First soloists
3.6 Soloists
3.7 Junior soloists
3.8 First Artists
3.9 Artists of the Company
4 Notable Productions
5 References
6 External links
History
English National Ballet was founded in 1950 by the British dance couple, Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin.
Markova and Dolin were leading stars of the Ballets Russes, one of the most influential ballet companies of the 20th century. After the death of its director Serge Diaghilev in 1929, the Company was disbanded and in 1931, one of its dancers, Ninette de Valois, founded the Vic-Wells Ballet Company in London, with Markova and Dolin as Principal dancers, Markova becoming Prima Ballerina in 1933. Markova and Dolin left the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1935 to tour as the Markova-Dolin Company and following the success of their performances, they decided to form their own company with the sole purpose being to tour both nationally and internationally, taking ballet to audiences that had not had the opportunity to see the art form.
London Festival Ballet was founded in 1950 with the financial backing of the Polish impresario Julian Braunsweg. The name was inspired by the then imminent Festival of Britain, however the Company would later be renamed to today's English National Ballet. Dolin was the Company's first Artistic Director and established the Company as a touring group both nationally in the UK and Internationally, touring abroad for the first time in 1951. Dolin also introduced a number of educational programs in the early years, designed to make ballet accessible to new audiences. Dolin remained as Artistic Director until 1962, succeeded by John Gilpin, who was also principal dancer with the Company from 1950 to 1960 and 1962 to 1971. The Company grew in size and status, undertaking extensive national and international tours, presenting a new generation of dancers—all while repeatedly facing bankruptcy. Braunsweg left in 1965 and Donald Albery took over until 1968, stabilising the budget with safer programming. Former Royal Ballet dancer Beryl Grey directed the Company (now named London Festival Ballet) from 1968 to 1979, raising technical standards, touring widely and inviting prominent guest stars and choreographers including Leonide Massine and Rudolf Nureyev, who picked ballerina Eva Evdokimova to be his first Princess Aurora in his production of The Sleeping Beauty in 1975. Evdokimova in turn became the prima ballerina of the Company under Grey's leadership and continued to reign under successive directors John Field and Peter Schaufuss.
It was Evdokimova who suggested to change the name to English National Ballet to reflect the Company's role as Britain's only classical ballet company dedicated to touring ballets nationwide at an affordable price for audiences. The name change was implemented in 1989.
Ivan Nagy (until 1993), Derek Deane (until 2001) and Matz Skoog (until 2006) directed the Company before Wayne Eagling, former head of Dutch National Ballet, took over in 2006. In April 2012, following the February sudden announcement of resignation by Eagling, principal dancer for The Royal Ballet Tamara Rojo was announced to become his successor at the end of the 2012 season, in August of that year.[1]
People
Artistic Directors:
Sir Anton Dolin, 1950–1962
John Gilpin, 1962–1968
Dame Beryl Grey, 1968–1979
John Field, 1979–1984
Peter Schaufuss, 1984–1990
Ivan Nagy, 1990–1993
Derek Deane, 1993–2001
Matz Skoog, 2001–2006
Wayne Eagling, 2006–2012
Tamara Rojo,[2] 2012–
Dancers
The Company's dancers are listed on the official website with photographs and linked biographies.[3]
Lead principals
Name | Nationality | Training | Joined ENB |
---|---|---|---|
Alina Cojocaru | Romania | Kiev Ballet School Royal Ballet School | 2013[4] |
Isaac Hernández[5] | Mexico | Philadelphia’s Rock School for Dance Education | 2015 |
Fernanda Oliveira | Brazil | Centro de Dança, Rio de Janeiro Royal Ballet School | 2000 |
Tamara Rojo | Spain | Victor Ullate School of Dance Bachelor's degree and Master in performing arts from Rey Juan Carlos University | 2012 |
Erina Takahashi | Japan | Kushiro Ballet Academy English National Ballet School | 1996 |
Principals
Name | Nationality | Training | Joined ENB |
---|---|---|---|
Yonah Acosta | Cuba | Cuban National Ballet School Cuban National Ballet School | 2011 |
Begoña Cao | United Kingdom | Arts Educational School Royal Ballet School | 1997 |
Shiori Kase | Japan | Hirose Kato Ballet School Royal Ballet School | 2009 |
Laurretta Summerscales | United Kingdom | English National Ballet School | 2009 |
Guest artists
- Osiel Gouneo
- Brooklyn Mack
Character artists
- Michael Coleman
- Jane Haworth
First soloists
- Cesar Corrales
- Crystal Costa
- James Forbat
- Adela Ramirez
- Fabian Reimair
- Junor Souza
Soloists
- Fernando Bufala
- Skyler Martin
- Alison McWhinney
- Emilio Pavan
- James Streeter
Junior soloists
- Aitor Arrieta
- Katja Khaniukova
- Senri Kou
- Daniel Kraus
- Juan Rodriguez
- Ken Saruhashi
First Artists
- Barry Drummond
- Tiffany Hedman
- Anjuli Hudson
- Chase Johnsey
- Madison Keesler
- Van Le Ngoc
- Makoto Nakamura
- Stina Quagebeur
- Tamarin Stott
- Jinhao Zhang
Artists of the Company
- Precious Adams
- William Beagley
- Francisco Bosch
- Georgia Bould
- Isabelle Brouwers
- Emilia Cadorin
- Yoko Callegari
- Jung ah Choi
- Shevelle Dynott
- Giorgio Garrett
- Jennie Harrington
- Amber Hunt
- Jeanette Kakareka
- Rina Kanehara
- Sarah Kundi
- Pedro Lapetra
- Laurent Liotardo
- Adriana Lizardi
- Joshua McSherry-Gray
- Guilherme Menezes
- Vitor Menezes
- Grant Rae
- Maria José Sales
- Daniele Silingardi
- Emily Suzuki
- Francesca Velicu
- Connie Vowles
- Angela Wood
- Erik Woolhouse
- Jia Zhang
Notable Productions
References
^ Brown, Mark (13 April 2012). "Tamara Rojo to be artistic director of English National Ballet". The Guardian. London..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ "English National Ballet announces Tamara Rojo as its new Artistic Director". Ballet News. 13 April 2012. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
^ "Dancers". English National Ballet. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
^ joined ENB as principal dancer
^ "Isaac Hernández: the hottest ballet boy to hit London since Carlos". Evening Standard. 2015-08-04. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
External links
- Official website
- Postings
- Strictly Gershwin at the Royal Albert Hall
YouTube: English Ballet Company: Swan Lake