English National Ballet's 2011 season listings pivot largely on the populist Strictly Gershwin dansical before returning to The Nutcracker for next Christmas. In between there are two intriguing programmes given brief but welcome London viewings, highlighting two French masters almost never shown in the UK, Roland Petit and Serge Lifar. Both were young radicals in their time, Lifar as Diaghilev's star who went on to lead Paris Opera Ballet, and Petit, the post-war rebel who oozed French chic, sexuality and modern style in his ballets.
Petit has a triple bill to himself, including the celebrated Carmen that he created for himself and his wife Zizi Jeanmaire, and possibly his most in-demand ballet, the dark, erotic Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, sought for by ballet stars the world over. Lifar's sparkling 1943 piece of Classicism, Suite en Blanc, is partnered with two of ENB director Wayne Eagling's own ballets, the all-male Men Y Men and his elegy on Mahler, Resolution, and a new work by young ENB dancer-choreographer Van le Ngoc.
Two Derek Deane productions are featured, his fine 2000 theatre staging of Swan Lake and Strictly Gershwin, an evening of dancing to songs by George and Ira Gershwin, returning to the maw of the Royal Albert Hall where it originated in 2008, but likely to be more lovable in the theatres that it tours to later. Full season guide below.
Spring/Summer 2011
- 5-15 January, Romeo & Juliet (Prokofiev, Nureyev 1977), London Coliseum
- 28 February, Emerging Dancer, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
- 16-19 March, Black & White: Wayne Eagling’s Resolution (music Mahler)/ Eagling’s Men Y Men (Rachmaninov)/ WORLD PREMIERE Van Le Ngoc’s The Weight of Love/ Serge Lifar’s Suite en Blanc (Edouard Lalo) London Coliseum
Watch Paris Opera Ballet dance the finale from Suite en Blanc in 2009 (from lanou on YouTube):
- 22-26 March, Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky, Deane 2000), London Coliseum
- 9-19 June, Strictly Gershwin (Gershwin, Deane 2008), Royal Albert Hall, London
- 21-24 July, Roland Petit: L’Arlésienne (Bizet)/ Le Jeune Homme et la Mort (Bach)/ Carmen (Bizet), London Coliseum
Watch Rudolf Nureyev and Zizi Jeanmaire in Petit's Le Jeune Homme et la Mort in 1966:
Autumn/Winter 2011
- Strictly Gershwin, Oxford New Theatre, 6-9 October; Palace Theatre, Manchester 12-15 October; Southampton Mayflower 18-22 October; Cardiff Wales Millennium Centre 26-29 October; Liverpool Empire 1-5 November; Milton Keynes Theatre, 15-19 November
- The Nutcracker (Eagling 2010), London Coliseum 8-30 December
Artistic director: Wayne Eagling
Principal conductor: Gavin Sutherland
Patron: HRH The Duke of York
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