New English Ballet Theatre
Makes its London debut with ‘SYNERGIES’
July 4th-8th at the Peacock Theatre, London WC2, as part of the Sadler’s Wells Spring/Summer 2012 season
www.nebt.co.uk
DanceTabs interview with Director Karen Pilkington-Miksa
New English Ballet Theatre, the brainwave of former ballet dancer, Karen Pilkington-Miksa, is one of the UK’s most innovative performance companies, infusing neoclassical ballet with collaborations in art, music, and set design from young graduate artists. This exciting new company is to make its highly anticipated debut at the Peacock Theatre, London, in July as part of the Sadler’s Wells Spring/Summer 2012 season by presenting Synergies, a mixed bill performed by the company’s 18 young dancers.
Synergies is an exciting programme of world renowned choreography and four premieres by young emerging choreographers. NEBT’s dancers will perform alongside guest artists Marianela Nuñez and Thiago Soares, both only on the gala night of July 5th, while 28 members of the Westminster Festival Orchestra will provide live accompaniment. Set design concepts will include work by finalists of the Linbury Prize for Stage Design while a selection of computerised images, which move with the music, will be projected onto the back of the stage allowing dancers to weave in and out of them. The images, ‘detached landscapes’, have been designed by the young, formidably talented artist Zachary Eastwood-Bloom while world renowned artist Lincoln Seligman, best known for his large scale works of art for buildings around the world, will be designing a unique piece for the production.
Among the premieres are pieces by Jenna Lee (Prokofiev’s Symphony No.1) who currently performs as a First Artist with English National Ballet; George Williamson (Poulenc’s Aubade) who has just choreographed the world premiere of a new ‘Firebird’ for English National Ballet; and Ernst Meisner, (Mozart Symphony No.39) a former Royal Ballet dancer currently choreographing with Dutch National Ballet.
NEBT will also perform Wayne Eagling’s celebrated ‘Resolution’, set to Mahler, and a work by fast rising choreographer Andrew McNicol set to Fauré’s Elégie Op. 24. McNicol’s world premiere of ‘Ballet Chocolat’, set to music by Rachel Portman, was performed by the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain at the Peacock Theatre last year.
NEBT is an ambitious new venture designed to showcase the wealth of emerging talent in ballet, visual art, music and choreography in the UK by providing employment and professional opportunities. The company will perform a festival of new works each year, from newly commissioned to existing neoclassical ballets. NEBT’s patrons include Darcey Bussell CBE, Mara Galeazzi, Marianella Nuñez and Wayne Sleep, as well as guest choreographers Wayne Eagling and Michael Corder.
Karen Pilkington-Miksa, Founder and Artistic Director: “For a long time I have felt there’s a vast pool of enormously creative ability and energy in the UK that is simply not being tapped. There is a bottleneck and not just with dancers but with young choreographers, musicians and artists. At NEBT we want to provide an important opportunity for young practitioners to perform on the professional stage; to provide a vital platform for the dance world to view the best new talent around and to have a complete interface between the arts.”
Alistair Spalding, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Sadler’s Wells: “The great strength of the approach of NEBT is that it is looking at young dancers, young choreographers, young designers, young musicians – all at the beginning of their careers…so we could see the next MacMillan in the programme. We hope it’ll become an annual presentation particularly for people from the major companies who are looking for new talent.”
Listings information:
‘Synergies’ performed by New English Ballet Theatre at the Peacock Theatre, London WC2
Dates: July 4th at 7.30pm; July 6th at 7.30pm;
July 7th at 2.30pm and 7.30pm; July 8th at 4pm
Tickets: £12.00 to £38.00
Box Office: 0844 412 4322 or www.sadlerswells.com
Gala fund raising evening: July 5th – for ticket applications please email gala@nebt.co.uk
Company website: www.nebt.co.uk
DANCERS
Hayley Blackburn Africa Brau Eugenia Brezzi Georgina Connolly
Ivan Delgado Del Rio Ludovico Di Ubaldo Jean Francois Gabet Chiaki Korematsu
Sonoya Mizuno Elsa Nguyen Trong Alexander Nuttall Daniel Pratt
Nicolas Scheuer Trevor Schoonraad Silas Stubbs Jack Thorpe-Baker
UNDERSTUDIES
Katya Bourvis Anita Bradshaw Tiffany Goggin Luca Rapis
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