English National Ballet School annual performance

Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London
July 4, 2024

For ballet students, the graduation year and the big step into a company or junior company is a crucial moment. The final school performance is where you need to show you have the talent, the presence and the skills to be employable. But Viviana Durante’s choice of programme, while an interesting mix for the audience, showed little of the graduating year’s ability to tackle the current repertoire of English National Ballet or other possible sources of employment.

The third year’s classical work was Les Patineurs, from 1937; and then Pina Bausch’s Tannhăuser Bacchanal of 1972, a fascinating piece of dance history.

Les Patineurs, by Frederick Ashton, is a timeless delight. Giacomo Meyerbeer’s tunes have the right rhythm to get you dancing and William Chappell’s iconic costumes never lose their charm. It is certainly not an easy ballet, but a joy to watch and to dance. The dancers gave a highly commendable showing in its very English style.

Tamaki Yamada, a confident dancer with graceful ports de bras, who was well supported by Joe Bratko-Dickson, danced an elegant White Couple. The virtuosic trio in blue ticked all the boxes. So Hadano, as Blue Boy had a cheeky smile and gave a performance that grew in confidence to end on a brilliant whiz of turns. The Blue Girls, Tia Helmer and Florence Lane complemented in perky performances, a strong series of fouettés and the pirouette manège.

A special mention for two lovely Red Girls, Paige Marshall and Tiffany Ng for a performance that integrated fully, both with the music and the whimsical humour. The Four Couples who are the backbone of the ballet danced with vigour through each of their energetic entrances keeping their enthusiasm to the end.

The First and Second Year students had a good opportunity to show excellent training and their proficiency in classical ballet. Of Space and Time, choreographed by Andrew McNicol, to a selection of classical music is a well-structured work in neoclassical style that choreographs classroom enchainments into a professional performance. The introduction of floor work is a little quirky but there are opportunities to show neat and strong pointes, clean turns, jumps and partnering.

Pina Bausch’s Tannhăuser Bacchanal to music by Richard Wagner is an intriguing work and gave the graduating class a chance to work in a contemporary style. The lights come up on a stage of writhing bodies in flesh-coloured tights. This is very early Bausch and shows hints of Rite of Spring, which she choreographed a few years later. Importantly it has a good deal of partner work. This is an essential skill and, while it was competently done in the ballet section of the programme, here it was tackled with greater confidence and very well executed. The three rehearsal directors, Marigia Maggipinto, Barbara Kaufmann and Ophelia Young from the Pina Bausch Foundation ensured the authenticity and professionalism of the performance.

The closing moments were a bit of fun and audience participation in Bausch’s Nelken Line. With changes in the management, hopefully the link between the school and the company can be strengthened to the benefit of the students.