Today, 13 August 2019, English National Ballet dancers arrived at the Company's new building on London City Island, Canning Town, to begin rehearsals for their 70th Anniversary Season.
The new building is home to seven full-sized rehearsal studios as well as the five-storey, state-of-the-art Production Studio which is fitted with a fly tower allowing for productions to be rehearsed with full set and lighting.
Some studios have been named in recognition of individual artists who have been an important part of English National Ballet, and others after significant supporters of the capital campaign who helped to make the building a reality: the Grey Studio, Hynd Studio, Linden Studio, the Markova/Dolin Studio, Nureyev Studio, Wall Studio and Weston Studio. Wood for the feature staircase and all seven dance studios was donated by Worktop Express.
The first productions to be rehearsed in the new building include the return of Akram Khan's Giselle, Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella, and Le Corsaire before performances this Autumn.
English National Ballet's new home on London City Island will open to the public in mid-September.
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.
