Latest news with #EnglishNationalBallet
Korea Herald
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Interview: Tall and assured, Lee Sang-eun finds freedom in contemporary ballet
English National Ballet lead principal Lee Sang-eun performs in Asia premiere of Johan Inger's 'Walking Mad' with Seoul Metropolitan Ballet Dancers move tirelessly to the gradually intensifying beat of Ravel's "Bolero" -- climbing over, crashing into or vanishing behind a large wooden wall. In the midst all this seeming chaos, one dancer stood out: tall, assured and unmistakably at home. At 181 centimeters tall, Lee Sang-eun, lead principal dancer of the English National Ballet, is impossible to miss. Lee is in Seoul to perform as a guest artist in the Asian premiere of 'Walking Mad,' part of a double bill with 'Bliss' by acclaimed Swedish choreographer Johan Inger. The Seoul Metropolitan Ballet's production runs from Friday to May 18 at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. "I first encountered 'Walking Mad' in 2013 as an understudy at the Semperoper Ballett Dresden,' Lee recalled in an interview with The Korea Herald at a rehearsal studio on Nodeul Island. 'I was promoted to principal in 2016, and that's when I finally had the chance to perform on stage. Coming back to it now -- nearly a decade later, and here in Korea -- feels deeply meaningful and joyful.' Having spent many years with ballet companies in Europe, she is no stranger to Inger's works. She performed in several, including "Peer Gynt" and 'Carmen,' for which the choreographer won the Benois de la Danse in 2016, and the experience has made her quite familiar with his movement language. 'Inger's works capture universal stories that resonate emotionally, with a visceral, honest and deeply human quality. That's why I feel his works have such a grounded essence,' said Lee. She suggested audiences tune in closely to the music. 'There are moments where movement and emotion connect through feeling alone. The music becomes a bridge, deepening the narrative. As a performer, I find myself most inspired when that synchronization between music, choreography and dancer happens naturally. That's when it becomes magical.' Seoul Metropolitan Ballet, a contemporary ballet company which inaugurated its season just last year, had sought Lee for a collaboration, as she perfectly aligns with the company's identity. Lee joined Universal Ballet in 2005 but left Korea to pursue more diverse and contemporary opportunities in Europe. In 2010, she joined Semperoper Ballett Dresden, where she danced until 2023. She then joined the English National Ballet when Aaron Watkin, the former artistic director of Semperoper, took the helm at the ENB. Over the past 20 years, she has performed in major repertory works, with choreographic luminaries such as Ohad Naharin and William Forsythe. This is the first time she is presenting a full-length contemporary work to a Korean audience, and Lee is particularly excited about the evolving dance scene in her home country. 'I left Korea partly to pursue more contemporary ballet, and now to see a company here embracing that, with legendary choreographers coming to Korea for the show, it's truly encouraging.' When she left, contemporary ballet was still a fringe interest in Korea, but it was when she danced a contemporary ballet piece that she 'truly felt free.' That sense of freedom was also closely tied to her physicality. Standing at 181 cm, Lee struggled to find compatible partners and roles in Korea. "Unlike classical ballet, where you must perfect your technique within a fixed framework, contemporary ballet is a collaborative process where both the choreographer and the dancer create in an open, evolving world. I really enjoy this creative process." Ironically, she said that after years of dancing contemporary ballet, she found a sense of freedom even within the constraints of classical ballet. 'Because of my height, I did wonder if I could continue ballet and eventually accepted that there might be limits," said Lee. "But despite that, it was still so rewarding. It was always a new challenge, constantly learning, and continuously failing -- and all those processes were all part of the growth.'
Daily Mail
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Princess Charlotte's passion she inherited from her grandmother Diana
Most little girls grow up with a dream of one day becoming a princess. But for Princess Charlotte, who celebrates her tenth birthday today, those hopes lie in the world of dance. Like her grandmother, Princess Diana, Charlotte is known to enjoy performances by the Royal Ballet. And the youngster has been spotted dancing alongside family members at events - including at a Taylor Swift concert in Wembley last summer and at the King's Coronation in 2023. The Prince and Princess of Wales have both previously spoken about Charlotte's love of dancing. William and Kate signed their daughter up for private ballet lessons when she was three and mentioned at an engagement in 2023 that Charlotte 'loves ballet and tap'. Last Christmas, the Princess was surprised with a ballet performance at Kate's carol concert. When the service was filmed on December 6, Kate said that she had enlisted Prince Louis to help keep the performance by soloists from the Royal Ballet a secret. Kate revealed to singer Paloma Faith: 'He's kept the secret! This is [for] what, maybe two weeks?' Charlotte appeared awed as she watched from the front row, with royal observers noticing that she was stood in a ballet stance as she watched the performance - as her grandmother frequently did. The princess may have inherited her love of dance from Diana, who studied ballet in her youth and had hoped to turn professional. Sadly she grew too tall to continue, but the passion remained. Diana continued to study ballet as a hobby, and took hundreds of secret lessons with dance teacher Anne Allan from 1981 to 1989. Allan shared some snippets of her time with Diana in her book, Dancing With Diana. Charlotte is seen dancing with George at the Coronation Concert in 2023 'She loved to dance. The minute she started to move her arms, you could see the feeling that it brought her,' Allan told People. Diana went on to become patron of the English National Ballet and enjoyed dancing so much that she put on a surprise display at London's Royal Opera House. 'She loved dancing; she was a fantastic dancer,' William said of his mother while speaking with Tamara Rojo, the English National Ballet's artistic director, shortly after the 20th anniversary of Diana's death. Charlotte, who has a wide range of hobbies including gymnastics and tennis, was given an extra-special treat for her eighth birthday when Kate brought her and friends to a ballet performance of Cinderella at the Royal Opera House in London. Kate is so committed to fostering her daughter's love for ballet that she even reportedly arranged lessons for Charlotte while she and William were away on a royal tour of the Caribbean in 2022. Ballet is steeped in royal history, with most female members of the Royal Family enjoying the artform. It originated in the royal courts of Europe during the Renaissance period and it was often used as a way for monarchs to showcase their power and wealth. Many European monarchs, such as Louis XIV of France, were enthusiastic patrons of ballet and helped to promote its development. Diana is pictured with Wayne Sleep dancing to Uptown Girl on stage at a Friends of Covent Garden gala at the Royal Albert Hall in December 1985. The dance was a surprise present from the princess to her husband Charles In February 2020, Duchess Sophie officially opened the Central School of Ballet's new studios, named in her honour, on the South Bank in Southwark. The Countess of Wessex studios in Paris Gardens feature seven studios, a fully equipped studio theatre, study and resource centres, as well as a state-of-the-art health suite. Sophie became patron of the Central School of Ballet in 2003 and is known to have a love of dance. Meanwhile, Princess Beatrice is a Royal Patron of the English National Ballet School and practiced ballet as a child. As Kate slowly returned to public duties last year, one of the first places she visited was the ballet, where she watched a performance of the English National Ballet's Giselle at Sadler's Wells in London. And Queen Camilla has previously opened up about her Silver Swans ballet lessons. She said: 'I do a bit of Silver Swans myself. The ladies today would rather show me up. I do love it. 'I had certainly never done ballet before, and it doesn't matter whether you have done ballet or not, it's something that will make you feel better. 'It gives you a certain amount of confidence in yourself; it's just a bit of discipline.' Ballet was one of Princess Diana's great loves, and it provided her with an escape from the pressures of her life in the limelight. But a love for dance is not the only thing she would share with her granddaughter Charlotte. Charlotte has angelic features similar to Diana's The late Princess of Wales had one of the most recognisable faces in the world, and with the world's eyes now on her, Charlotte stands tall, with angelic features just like Diana's. And while we will never know what Diana would think of Charlotte's love for modern-day pop stars like Taylor Swift, hopefully the young royal will continue to find joy through a hobby which brings her close to her grandmother.
The Guardian
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
English National Ballet: The Forsythe Programme review
It's no coincidence that so many of a new generation of choreographers have danced for William Forsythe, the most influential dance-maker since George Balanchine. It's not just that he encourages thought and creativity, enabling people such as Crystal Pite, Emily Molnar and Jill Johnson to emerge as significant forces in their own right. It's also that he makes dancers look so powerful, majestic, in control of time and space and their own destinies. English National Ballet's The Forsythe Programme, which has been filling Sadler's Wells with adoring audiences this past week, is a case in point. In three contrasting works, the sense of dance prowess realised springs from the questing character of Forsythe himself. Never a man to rest on his laurels, in his mid-70s he's still refining and rethinking dance. He seems constantly to ask himself what something is, turning it like a diamond to see how the facets will refract the light. Rearray (London Edition 2025), originally made as a duet in 2011 for Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas Le Riche, has been refashioned as a trio, with one central ballerina (now on pointe) and two male consorts. In a series of short scenes separated by sudden blackouts, sometimes to David Morrow's dark-hued score, sometimes in silence, the dancers shape the air in fiercely defined symmetries. In her central role, Sangeun Lee's long legs flick into casual attitudes, her arms outstretched into impossible geometry. Halfway through a movement, she seems to hesitate, question where to go next. In the dark, positions shift, often surprisingly. The men (Henry Dowden, Rentaro Nakaaki) are watchful, in her thrall. They fling off sprightly jumps, super-fast turns; sit on stage, arms interlinked like medieval jesters. The piece is full of quotations from works of the past, struck almost casually before the dancers move on. In the next cast, Emily Suzuki brings a gentler flow to the dynamics of the movement, less haughty than Lee but still very much a queen to the attendant men (Jose María Lorca Menchón and Miguel Angel Maidana). The pensive mood is in marked contrast to the muscular vitality of Herman Schmerman (Quintet), for two men and three women to music by Thom Willems, reconceived with a bright blue background (lighting design Tanja Rühl) and orange plush velvet leotards. Created for New York City Ballet in 1992, its title taken from Steve Martin's noir parody Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, it's an abstract piece of circus vitality that sets its participants off in cheekily insouciant showoff turns. The energy is electric as, on opening night, Aitor Arrieta, Alice Bellini, Ivana Bueno, Francesco Gabriele Frola and Swanice Luong stroll on to fling themselves into off-kilter pirouettes and eye-popping entrechats, feet and limbs moving at pace. At the end, they all fall down – a tribute to the final moment of Balanchine's Serenade, perhaps, but also a reflection of just how exhausting the combinations they throw off are. The delicious contrast between the formality of the patterns created and the relaxed bravura of the dancers is amped to the max in the final work, Playlist (EP) from 2022, in which dazzling feats of balletic virtuosity are set to a score by artists including Peven Everett, Lion Babe and Barry White. It begins with ENB's impressive cohort of men performing athletic (and often rarely used) ballet combinations like battling club dancers, raising the roof with the sheer elevation of their jumps and the sharpness of their turns. Then the women enter like a brilliant chorus line. The intricate shifts of their movements, alone and in constantly changing configurations, release a sense of infectious pleasure. Yet amid the delirium there's subtlety too: a duet for Junor Souza and Precious Adams to Natalie Cole's This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) is full of feeling as well as panache. The entire evening feels like an assertion of ballet's ability to wrap its past and future into one joyful package. Forsythe's works are a jewel in ENB's crown, and the company makes them gleam. The Forsythe Programme is at Sadler's Wells, London, until 19 April
BBC News
14-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Dance classes helping support people with Parkinson's
People living with Parkinson's are using dance skills to support their co-ordination and muscle strength.A student-led clinic at the University of Leicester has hosted a dance class, run by Virtual Motion Dance, which works with people living with the is hoped the activity will help improve muscle strength and balance."The exercises support us as I feel like I have achieved something - you can move on and feel more energised," said Ian Findley, 81, who has lived with the disorder for five years. "I got shakes in my right hand when I was driving. People noticed, and we made an appointment," he added."If we're talking about it, then it can only help. You are socialising and sharing your experience with other people. It really does help."This is not going to drag us down. We will win in the end."Those who organise the classes have also performed in Leicestershire for the People Dancing National Programme 'Live Well & Dance Parkinson's', in affiliation with the English National Ballet. Helen Winn-Smith, from Virtual Motion Dance, said the initiative is built in with an exercise programmed she has worked on with the physiotherapy team at University Hospitals of added: "The music is a key part of people living with Parkinson's. It can help with the walking and balance."The movement comes through and that helps the tone of the muscle."Not everyone has the same symptoms and we support people dealing with the changes."She said the group is not just about dancing but also members talking about their experiences, adding: "It's a real place where you can come together and make friends."Parkinson's UK estimates around 153,000 people across the UK are living with the condition, with most patients likely to be diagnosed over the age of 70."I didn't really have any problems while I was working but, after I retired, my symptoms have got worse," said Christine Gowdridge, a former computer technician, who was diagnosed with the condition in September 2007."I know that everyone has a similar problem. You can still get warm doing the seated routine."The old saying is if you don't use it, you will lose it. "If you're capable of doing it, and carry on doing it, then you will do just fine."
Telegraph
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Forsythe Programme: Guaranteed to leave you with a great, giddy grin on your face
It was a snuffly, sleep-deprived critic who took his seat on Thursday evening, sensing that even staying awake for the evening's 85 minutes of entertainment would be a triumph. By the time it ended – some 15 minutes late, but hey-ho – I felt ready to spring up and run a marathon. A tribute to the great New York-born postmodern choreographer William Forsythe, English National Ballet's The Forsythe Programme comes in three zesty, entirely abstract, prop- and set-free parts. There's one borderline novelty – Rearray (London Edition 2025) – as well as Herman Schmerman (1992), a piece not seen in this country since the Royal Ballet last performed it almost 30 years ago. But it is the returning work, Playlist (EP) – beefed up for ENB in 2022 from two slightly earlier iterations – that will pull the crowds during this 10-day season. And it was this that proved so genuinely, ridiculously revivifying on the first night. If you were to imagine a Venn diagram with the structures and strictures of a Balanchine work in one circle and an exultant club night in the other, Playlist (EP) would sit perfectly in the middle. Forsythe reasons that pop music is pretty traditional in terms of its composition, and that its core rhythms have plenty in common with the music of the great Russian ballet composers (Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev), but that 'pop is just more blatant in its desire to engender joyful physical expression'. And so, the piece plays out to six beat-driven tracks – from the neo-disco of Peven Everett's Surely Shorty, via the groovy soul of Sha La La Means I Love You by Barry 'Walrus of Love' White to Natalie Cole's exultant This Will Be an Everlasting Love. And my, does Forsythe whip up some joy. You can marvel at his organic, apparently effortless fusion and alternation of retooled ballet vocabulary and shuffling dance-floor moves, at his marvellous marshalling of a stage-full of dancers, the subtle variations in his responses to each songs, and his ever-ingenious way of wrapping each section. (Forsythe has a positively McCartney-like mastery of codas and conclusions.) On which subject, feel free, too, to beam in pure delight at the climactic reveal, which implies that a couple (here, the fabulously musical duo of Precious Adams and Junor Souza) have been shimmying away together, backstage and unseen, all the while. Or, as I suspect most people do, you can simply let its 30-odd-minutes tumble blissfully over you, grateful for the mixture of effervescence and (in the main) rigour that ENB's luminously clad dancers bring to the whole thing. As for the two hors d'oeuvres, Rearray – bulked up from a duo that Forsythe created in 2011 for the Sylvie Guilllem and Nicolas Le Riche, and here performed by the crack trio of Sangeun Lee, Henry Dowden and Rebtaro Nakaaki – is a spikier three-way 'conversation' that's at its best when the dancers are apparently trying (and barely managing) to cajole each other into various flavours of imitative, often line-fracturing movement. Created for New York City Ballet, the quintet from Herman Schmerman (its title taken from a line in the 1982 Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid) is more playful, and was more groundbreaking back in the day in the apparent casualness with which the dancers stride around between sections. Even if their scores feel a bit wilfully spartan now, both hold the attention. But, as Hamlet famously said, the Playlist's the thing. And this, above all, is the piece guaranteed to leave you with a great, giddy grin on your face.
