Rupert Christiansen

Striking but not altogether successful: ENB’s Our Voices reviewed

Balanchine’s Theme and Variations was glorious but I didn't care for the two new commissions

Francesca Velicu as Chosen One and Henry Dowden as Priest in Andrea Miller’s Les Noces. © laurent Liotardo

Aaron S. Watkin, an affable bearded Canadian, is the new artistic director of English National Ballet. He arrives from Dresden, where he ran a similarly scaled company comfortably subsidised by public funds. Doubtless, he finds what the Arts Council gives ENB meagre to the point of stingy. One may wonder, therefore, what the attraction is, but he certainly inherits from Tamara Rojo a solid organisation and a fine body of dancers, particularly strong on the male side.

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