English National Ballet School (ENBS), founded in 1988 by the then ENB artistic director (1984–1990) Peter Schaufuss, with only twelve students as a feeder for the main company, now auditions three hundred every year for thirty places. It has come a long way in thirty-five years.
Tonight we see the standard of raw material and tuition. Artistic director Viviana Durante and Schaufuss make short introductory speeches to an audience of family and supportive friends. But the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is a fine concoction of classical, neo-classical and contemporary, five pieces in all.
The cast sheet does not indicate who are first year, second year or the graduating third year. The programme has photos of the third years, but I am sitting too far away in the back stalls to identify them convincingly. From the list of year names in the programme, I have cobbled together which pieces are danced by which years. But it goes to show the high standard, that from performance alone I am unable to distinguish these 16- to 19-year-olds.
An extract from Bournonville’s La Sylphide, in Schaufuss’s version, opens with a cast of first and second years. Second year Gabriel Pimparel is outstanding as James—excellent ballon, entrechats, jetés—soft landings and open personality. Second-year Florence Lane is the main Sylph with her three companions (Tamaki Yamada, Riho Hayashi and Ailey Osaki) making a lovely trio against a supporting corps of eighteen.
The classical spell is broken by Morgann Runacre-Temple’s (Coppélia, Hotel and more) Sound and Vision to the music of David Bowie and Mika Karlsson. Episodic, geometric, futuristic or possibly retro (I can’t make up my mind) a cast of twenty-four, or so, third years, in grey and burgundy unisex outfits, show their moves in small groups, duets and solos.
It’s a fascinating jigsaw of a piece, as is the funky and ambient music. The focal point is a retro black telephone (no chord though). Are they being given instruction—they all seem to vie for it—as they line up for the call? Are they the vision of the future? Of course, they are. Bodies supple, extensions high, it feels a bit street, and I love it.
ENBS Artistic Associate Andrew McNicol, who has already established himself as a choreographer on the rise, brings a neo-classical piece, Of Space and Time, to the table for a first and second year male cohort of twelve. Dressed in white long-sleeved vests and tights, they remind me of Matthew Bourne’s comic Spitfire… erroneously, no doubt. Star Trek is probably the correct reference. The music is lovely—Rossini, Glazunov and Carl Maria von Weber—a huge contrast to the previous piece and the following one, a refreshing palate cleanser. Epic, I have in my notes.
After the interval comes my favourite of the evening, Flock by Monique Jonas (I remember her in Richard Alston’s Company). She brings her Rambert training to it. The music beats are the driving force—“Sama-sounounou” and “Lancaster I” by the oud-playing Le Trio Joubran, “Chkrr” arranged by herself. Flock’s syncopated ethnic music of the soul and spirit is a testing exercise in timing.
Again, a mix of first and second years (twenty-five listed), dressed in contemporary black, they are loose shouldered and ready to fly—interesting acrobatic leaps and climbs up a ramp of bodies, girls on boys’ shoulders are totem images. The female solo is fabulous. Terrific.
Finally, the biggest challenge of the night, Balanchine’s jazzy, leggy, high-stepping dance on pointe, his Broadway tribute to the Gershwin brothers, Who Cares?, first danced by New York City Ballet in 1970. Tonight, we have eight out of a possible seventeen songs.
Very demanding choreography, so it’s for the third years, I think. Five girls in red and ten in purple, five boys in striped waistcoats and ties, proper ‘Gene Kelly’ hoofers. And, who better than Deborah Wingert, fifteen years with Balanchine’s company, to teach it... I wonder if they've seen Crazy For You?
Brave to take it on, speed and musical theatre panache are basic requirements. Difficult to pull it off, it doesn't yet feel natural to them, but they try, throw themselves at it with verve and determination. The evening is a great exercise in range. They will need it in the real world.