English National Ballet announces Guest Artists Ivan Vasiliev and Alban Lendorf will perform the role of Prince Siegfried alongside Alina Cojocaru and Tamara Rojo in Derek Deane’s Swan Lake at the London Coliseum from 7 to 18 January 2015. This is the first time that Vasiliev has performed the role of Prince Siegfried.
New Principal Alejandro Virelles joins ENB from Boston Ballet. He will perform the lead roles in Swan Lake and Nutcracker on tour and at the London Coliseum.
Also joining the Company this season are Precious Adams, who recently finished her training at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and was a double prize winner at the Prix de Lausanne 2014, Yoko Callegari from Boston Ballet, Adriana Lizardi from Ballet National de l’Opera de Bordeaux, Sarah Kundi from Ballet Black and Isabelle Brouwers and Jinhao Zhang from English National Ballet School.
From 10 to 15 March 2015, ENB presents Modern Masters: Icons of 20th Century Choreography at Sadler’s Wells. The triple bill will include works from two choreographers new to the Company’s repertoire: William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated and Spring and Fall by John Neumeier, as well as Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort, first performed by the Company in Ecstasy and Death in 2013.
The 2015 Emerging Dancer competition will be held at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 23 March. Last year’s winner of the Emerging Dancer Award, Junor Souza, has since been promoted to First Soloist and will perform Principal roles in Swan Lake and Nutcracker this season.
ENB’s emerging dance makers' programme, Choreographics, will take place from 18 to 20 June 2015 at the Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler’s Wells in collaboration with Russell Maliphant.
This season sees the continuation of the My First Ballet… series—making ballet accessible to audiences as young as three years old—with My First Ballet: Swan Lake. The production runs at the Peacock Theatre, London from 2 to 12 April, followed by a six-week UK tour including two new venues the Lighthouse, Poole, and Curve Theatre, Leicester.
As well as touring UK (Coppélia visiting Southampton, Oxford and Bristol, and Swan Lake to Manchester, Milton Keynes and Liverpool), in summer 2015 ENB embarks on an international tour to Beijing, Singapore, Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico City and Bogota.
And finally and not least, continuing its commendable Dance for Parkinson’s work, ENB expands its regional class programmes to include DanceEast in Ipswich and National Dance Company Wales in Cardiff. They join existing partners Oxford, in partnership with Oxford City Council and Liverpool, in partnership with Merseyside Dance Initiative.