English National Ballet's new season contains new exciting projects from Tamara Rojo, who keeps her magic wand carefully hidden or has a genius sense of what will stimulate and satisfy not just ENB's existing audience, but the new audiences which it seems to be successfully attracting.
Kenneth MacMillan's Song of the Earth and Frank Andersen's La Sylphide will be performed for the first time, with performances on tour and at the London Coliseum.
Roland Petit's Le Jeune Homme et la Mort returns with performances at the London Coliseum; Akram Khan's Giselle returns to London and will tour to Liverpool for the first time; and Rudolf Nureyev's Romeo & Juliet returns to Bristol in its 40thanniversary year.
The two new works to the English National Ballet's repertoire – Song of the Earth and Andersen's La Sylphide – will be performed on tour at the Manchester Palace Theatre, Milton Keynes Theatre, and at the London Coliseum where Le Jeune Homme et la Mort will also be revived.
Of the new season, Rojo says,
Song of the Earth is a great example of MacMillan's choreographic style. Influenced by the original Chinese poems that Mahler used to create the score, we can see how MacMillan used these delicate movements to form part of the dramatic choreography.
This incredibly moving work is a wonderful vehicle for the extremely talented dancers in the company, and I can't wait for our audiences to see them perform it next season.
Song of the Earth was first performed in 1965, and MacMillan's choreography was different from anything he had previously created. Three central figures, a Woman, a Man, and a Messenger, feature in his powerful exploration of life, death, and renewal is set to Mahler's song cycle, Das Liede von der Erde, which will be performed live by English National Ballet Philharmonic. The performances of Song of the Earth by ENB coincide with the 25th anniversary of MacMillan's death.
Frank Andersen is one of the world's leading producers of Bournonville ballets and his faithful version of the 1830's La Sylphide will be performed by the ENB, the first time in the UK.
Petit's Le Jeune Homme et la Mort is also in the lineup, which the company last performed in 2013, as part of its Ecstasy and Death programme.
Following its sold out and critically acclaimed run of Akram Khan's Giselle last year, it unsurprisingly returns this autumn with performances at Sadler's Wells and the Liverpool Empire Theatre. Last season over 40,000 people saw Akram Khan's reimagined Giselle performed on tour.
Nureyev's Romeo & Juliet returns this autumn with performances at the Bristol Hippodrome. These performances mark the 40th anniversary of the production, which was originally created for ENB in 1977 to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee.
Oops, nearly forgot Nutcracker! ENB had its most successful Nutcracker run on record last season, when over 99,000 people came to see the production. This year Wayne Eagling's Nutcracker tours to the Mayflower Theatre Southampton before returning to the London Coliseum, continuing the Company's tradition of presenting a Nutcracker production each year since 1950.
Tickets go on sale to Friends of English National Ballet at 10am on Friday 10 March. General on sale is at 10am on Monday 13 March.
For information on how to become a Friend of English National Ballet see www.ballet.org.uk/support-us
2017-2018 Autumn/Winter Season.
Akram Khan's Giselle
Sadler's Wells
Wednesday 20 – Saturday 23 September 2017
http://giselle.ballet.org.uk
Song of the Earth / La Sylphide
Manchester Palace Theatre
Wednesday 11 October – Saturday14 October 2017
www.ballet.org.uk/song-sylphide
Song of the Earth / La Sylphide
Milton Keynes Theatre
Tuesday 17 October – Saturday 21 October 2017
www.ballet.org.uk/song-sylphide
Akram Khan's Giselle
Liverpool Empire Theatre
Wednesday 25 October – Saturday 28 October 2017
http://giselle.ballet.org.uk
Romeo & Juliet
Bristol Hippodrome
Tuesday 21 November – Saturday 25th November 2017
www.ballet.org.uk/romeoandjuliet
Nutcracker
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
Wednesday 29 November – Saturday 2 December 2017
www.ballet.org.uk/nutcracker
Nutcracker
London Coliseum
Wednesday 13 December 2017 – Saturday 6 January 2018
www.ballet.org.uk/nutcracker
Song of the Earth / La Sylphide
London Coliseum
Tuesday 9 January – Saturday 13 January 2018
www.ballet.org.uk/song-sylphide
Le Jeune Homme et la Mort / La Sylphide
London Coliseum
Tuesday 16 January – Saturday 20 January 2018
www.ballet.org.uk/jeune-sylphide
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
