English National Ballet

English National Ballet
General information
Name	English National Ballet
Previous names	Festival Ballet London Festival Ballet
Year founded	1950
Founders	Dame Alicia Markova Sir Anton Dolin
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
Répétiteurs	Associate Artist Director: Loipa Araújo Repetiteurs: Hua Fang Zhang Yohei Sasaki Associate Artist: George Williamson 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.

History

English National Ballet was originally 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.

Elena Glurdjidze as Swanilda & Aroniel Vargas as Franz in the English National Ballet's production of Coppélia. Southampton's Mayflower Theatre. Also in the picture (bowing) is Michael Coleman as Dr. Coppelius.

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	Rank	Other Companies
Alina Cojocaru	Romania	Kiev Ballet School Royal Ballet School	2013^[4]	Lead Principal	Royal Ballet Kiev Ballet Hamburg Ballet
Dmitri Gruzdyev	Russia	Vaganova Ballet Academy	1993^[4]	Lead Principal	Kirov Ballet
Fernanda Oliveira	Brazil	Centro de Dança, Rio de Janeiro Royal Ballet School	2000	Lead Principal	Chilean National Ballet
Tamara Rojo	Spain	Victor Ullate School of Dance Bachelor's degree and Master in performing arts from Rey Juan Carlos University	2012	Lead Principal and Artistic Director	Royal Ballet English National Ballet
Erina Takahashi	Japan	Kushiro Ballet Academy English National Ballet School	1996	Lead Principal

Principals

Name	Nationality	Training	Joined ENB	Rank	Other Companies
Yonah Acosta	United Kingdom	Cuban National Ballet School Cuban National Ballet School	2011	Principal
Begoña Cao	United Kingdom	Arts Educational School Royal Ballet School	1997	Principal
Aroniel Vargas	Cuba	Cuban National Ballet School Laura Alonso & Ivan Montreal	2004	Principal	Royal Winnipeg Ballet

Guest artists

As of May 2014, guest artists include Carlos Acosta, Vadim Muntagirov, Friedemann Vogel, and Alban Lendorf.^[3]

Character artists

Jane Haworth

First soloists

Crystal Costa

Adela Ramirez

Fabian Reimair

Lauretta Summerscales

Soloists

Désirée Ballantyne

Fernando Bufala

James Forbat

Junior soloists

Kei Akahoshi
Senri Kou
Max Westwell

Daniel Kraus
Laurent Liotardo
Anton Lukovkin

Juan Rodriguez
Junor Souza
James Streeter

First artists

Van Le Ngoc
Makoto Nakamura

Tamarin Stott

References

↑ Brown, Mark (13 April 2012). "Tamara Rojo to be artistic director of English National Ballet". The Guardian. London.
↑ "English National Ballet announces Tamara Rojo as its new Artistic Director". Ballet News. 13 April 2012.
1 2 "Dancers". English National Ballet. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
1 2 joined ENB as principal dancer

External links

Dance companies in the United Kingdom

Ballet	Ballet Cymru Birmingham Royal Ballet English National Ballet London Children's Ballet Northern Ballet Royal Ballet Scottish Ballet

Contemporary	Candoco DV8 Physical Theatre Motionhouse National Dance Company Wales New Adventures Phoenix Dance Theatre Rambert Dance Company Richard Alston Dance Company Scottish Dance Theatre Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company Siobhan Davies Dance Company Studio Wayne McGregor

Ballet companies

Africa	Cairo Opera Ballet Company Cape Town City Ballet

Asia	Ballet Manila Ballet Philippines Guangzhou Ballet Hong Kong Ballet Iranian National Ballet Company Israel Ballet K-ballet Korea National Ballet National Ballet of China Philippine Ballet Theatre Shanghai Ballet Company Singapore Dance Theatre State Ballet of Georgia Tokyo Ballet Universal Ballet

Europe	Ballet Cymru Les Ballets Persans Ballet Romand Ballet Zürich Barcelona Ballet Bayerisches Staatsballett Béjart Ballet Berlin State Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet Bolshoi Ballet Cork City Ballet Royal Danish Ballet Donetsk Ballet Dutch National Ballet Eifman Ballet English National Ballet Finnish National Ballet Sukhishvili Georgian National Ballet Greek National Opera Hamburg Ballet Hungarian National Ballet Kiev Ballet La Scala Theatre Ballet Mariinsky Ballet Mikhailovsky Theatre Ballet National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Moldova The Monte-Carlo Ballet National Opera and Ballet of Bulgaria Northern Ballet Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Novosibirsk Theatre Ballet Original Ballet Russe Paris Opera Ballet Perm Theatre Ballet Polish National Ballet National Ballet of Portugal The Royal Ballet Rambert Dance Company Russian State Ballet of Siberia Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre Scottish Ballet Spanish National Dance Company Stanislavski Ballet Stuttgart Ballet Royal Swedish Ballet Théâtre du Silence Turkish State Opera and Ballet

North America	Alabama Ballet Alameda Civic Ballet Alexandra Ballet Alonzo King LINES Ballet American Ballet Theatre American Repertory Ballet Anaheim Ballet Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Atlanta Ballet Atlanta Festival Ballet Ballet Arizona Ballet Austin Ballet BC Ballet Des Moines Ballet Fantastique Ballet Hispanico Ballet Magnificat! Ballet Memphis BalletMet Ballet Minnesota Ballet Nebraska Ballet Nouveau Colorado Ballet Quad Cities Ballet San Jose Ballet Theatre of Maryland Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Ballet West Bay Pointe Ballet Boston Ballet Les Grands Ballets Canadiens California Riverside Ballet Carolina Ballet Charlotte Ballet Chicago Ballet Chicago Festival Ballet Cincinnati Ballet Cleveland Ballet Colorado Ballet Complexions Contemporary Ballet Cuban National Ballet Dance Theatre of Harlem Dayton Ballet Eugene Ballet Greensboro Ballet Houston Ballet Joffrey Ballet Kansas City Ballet Los Angeles Ballet Louisville Ballet National Ballet of Canada National Ballet Theater of Puerto Rico New Jersey Ballet New York City Ballet Oklahoma City Ballet Oregon Ballet Theatre Pacific Northwest Ballet Pennsylvania Ballet Pittsburgh Ballet San Francisco Ballet Tulsa Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet

Oceania	The Australian Ballet Queensland Ballet Royal New Zealand Ballet West Australian Ballet

South America	Ballet Municipal de Lima Chilean National Ballet Colon Theater Ballet Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro

Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance (1977–2000)

London Festival Ballet (1977) Robert Cohan (1978) Peter Schaufuss (1979) The Royal Ballet (1980) Stuttgart Ballet (1981) Ballet de l'Opéra National de Paris (1982) Ballet Rambert (1986) Trisha Brown (1987) Kirov Ballet (1988) London Contemporary Dance Theatre (1989/1990) Twyla Tharp and Jennifer Tipton (1991) William Forsythe and The Royal Ballet (1992) Siobhan Davies (1993) London Contemporary Dance Theatre (1994) Peter Mumford (1995) Siobhan Davies (1996) Rambert Dance Company (1997) Lez Brotherston (1998) William Forsythe and Ballett Frankfurt (1999) Jiří Kylián and Nederlands Dans Theater 1 (2000)

Complete list (1977–2000) (2001–2025)

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