English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer

Sadler’s Wells, London
May 24, 2024

Hosted by artistic director Aaron S. Watkin, English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer returned to Sadler’s Wells, providing an opportunity to shine for six of the company’s upcoming dancers. Nominated by their fellow company members, it’s their chance to show what they can do with full classical and contemporary pas de deux. Former winner Precious Adams neatly summed it up in one of the videos shown, describing it very much as “a crash course in being a principal dancer.”

As always, the six dancers were divided into three couples, each performing a classical and contemporary pas de deux. It proved a problematic evening at times with a number of mishaps, but one couple, Breanna Foad and Thiago Pereira stood out, and it was no great surprise when Foad was named Emerging Dancer 2024.

In the Venetian Carnival duet from Satanella, Foad and Pereira made a very elegant and confident couple, the rapport between them there for all to see. Not only did both clearly enjoy their moment in the spotlight to the full, but not a step was misplaced. They made you want to watch them.

Foad brimmed with fast neat footwork, sparkling in her solo variation. Pereira, having announced his arrival with a prodigious leap, was just as good. He had beautiful lightness in his cabrioles and batterie, and produced a fabulously explosive series of leaps and pirouettes in his coda. On top of that was bags of character, the importance of which he talked about in an introductory video. He made you want to watch him.

Their rather dark contemporary duet, Penrose, specially created for the evening by London-based Taiwanese choreographer-dancer Ching-ying Chien (簡晶瀅) comes with a strong sense of character and narrative, right from the opening moment that sees him, back to us, zipping his trousers up. After a section that sees Foad little more than a prop, she gets by far the best of the choreography with her loose hair and somewhat manic movement emphasising the drama. There’s also a lot of close-quarters work with bodies knotted together. Much core strength is required from both, especially when knees and elbows are used in balances.

The first couple up, Anna-Babette Winkler and Jose María Lorca Menchón, looked decidedly tense in the Act I pas d’action for Gamzatti and Solor from La Bayadère with supports visibly shaky. Winkler later slipped and fell, which clearly affected he following fouettés. Lorca Menchón fared a little better, achieving nice elevation and light landings on his jumps, although he too was not immune from mishaps, appearing to stumble on his menage.

It’s at times like this that I can’t help wondering of the whooping and hollering of the enthusiastic audience actually helps, however well-intentioned.

Both looked much more at home in the closing duet from Akram Khan’s Dust. As beautiful as it is, the choreography does lack emotional pull when viewed out of context, however.

Anna Ciriano and Shunhei Fuchiyama first presented the demanding Grand pas de deux from Don Quixote. Fuchiyama struggled a little with some of the testing partnering, a lot of supports appearing off-centre. He did give us plenty of individual fireworks though, even if there was the occasional stray rocket. In contrast, Ciriano’s Kitri felt contained but did come with bags of character. She also recovered well from an overhead lift that went badly wrong with her finishing up on the floor.

Their second duet, Moya, created by English National Ballet’s own Rentaro Nakaaki with music by fellow dancer Fabian Reimair proved the more appealing of the two new contemporary choreographies. The title means ‘hazy’ in Japanese, although there was nothing hazy about the choreography or performance. The movement vocabulary is perhaps a little unadventurous but, with the couple in black leather-look tops and danced under stark white lighting with some sections in gorgeous silhouette, and with lots of purposeful entrances and exits, it was quite intriguing.

While judges Amanda Britton (artistic director, Rambert School), Isabela Coracy (senior artist, Ballet Black), Monica Zamora (former principal, Birmingham Royal Ballet) and Edward Watson (former principal, now repetiteur, The Royal Ballet) went off to deliberate, the audience were treated to Precious Adams and Eric Synder dancing Paris Opera Ballet artistic director José Martínez’s Délibes Suite. Created in 2003 and to music from La Source and Coppélia, it comes with a fair dash of camp humour. Adams and Synder were a total delight. The partnering was fabulous, and there was precision and finesse wherever you looked.

It was a fine way for Adams to mark picking up the People’s Choice Award, voted for by English National Ballet’s audiences over the season, becoming the first artist to win it twice.

After her earlier travails, Anna-Babette Winkler’s evening ended on a high as she picked up the Corps de Ballet Award, given every year by English National Ballet’s artistic team in recognition of an artist who has “gone above and beyond the call of duty, both on stage and off,” throughout the season.

Emerging Dancer 2024 will be available to stream from English National Ballet’s YouTube page for 30 days from May 30, 2024.