Tamara Rojo appointed as Artistic Director of English National Ballet

[aileen]

On the subject of friends' schemes for young people, I recently tried to purchase a Ballet Buddies membership (under 16s) for my 11 year old daughter. You could not buy it on-line. It was not possible to buy it over the telephone. In the end we sent an email and a form was sent to us in the post. The form was very out of date. It had pictures of the Angelina Ballerina production which toured about 4 years ago and was not really appropriate anyway for older Ballet Buddies. All of this created a rather negative impression and my daughter was disappointed. We have not yet purchased the Ballet Buddies membership. This is an example of what I regard as poor marketing. ENB needs to be much slicker than this in today's tough world. As I said above, pricing policy, and this includes friends' schemes, need to be looked at.

[Bluebird]

On the subject of friends' schemes for young people, I recently tried to purchase a Ballet Buddies membership (under 16s) for my 11 year old daughter. You could not buy it on-line.

Sadly this is a result of the new website they rolled out a little while ago. Until then it was possible to buy all kinds of membership (and book events) online. In fact the organiser of the Friends of ENB told me a while ago that they had gained many new members because of the ease of completing an online application. I assume this facility will return when they have the new website sorted.

[aileen]

Bluebird, an organisation's website is an important part of its marketing. It's the first port of call for most people. ENB really must get its website sorted out as soon as possible. Apart from anything else, it looks a bit dull compared to other websites (although the videos are good). Their programmes (ie the "booklets") also need to be improved. There are some lovely photographs but there is little information about the productions, their history etc and a lot of padding. At £6 there are rather expensive for what they are. The Royal's programmes always have several in-depth articles written by respected dance writers.

[Jan McNulty]

David - ENB regularly perform at Bristol, which is not too far from Bath. (I love the Theatre Royal in Bath as went frequently when I worked in Bath in the early noughties - Northern Ballet are taking their production of Beauty and the Beast there at the very end of November and I am hoping to attend if I can get tickets).

 

Judging by the success of BRB's midscale tour, there could well be room in the market place for ENB to resurrect their smaller tours.

 

As regards publicity, I get ENB leaflets from the Liverpool Empire because I have booked to see them there (and also from the Palace Theatre in Manchester, come to think of it). I think the problem with the Coli is that while they do present other companies the theatre is owned by ENO whom they would be bound to promote. The theatres I get leaflets from are receiving theatres and do not have a home company so it is in their interest to promote the visiting companies.

 

I have noticed with ENB that they do seem to give their tour dates at the earliest opportunity. It used to be the case in Liverpool that when one season started booking opened for the following season at the same time. I am not sure if this is still the case.

 

In respect of websites, it is not only ENBs that can lag behind the times. I remember a couple of years ago looking at the website of a European company for a city holiday I was planning - it was at least two years out of date! I must admit that I preferred the look of the previous ENB website and I found this one harder to navigate. The thing is that one person's "modern look" is another person's "yuck" and I've never been able to work out how you can please everyone.

[Anna C]

I get lots of emails from ENB and ENO advertising their forthcoming productions.

 

I agree that the Ballet Buddies scheme is more suited to younger children. I did buy my dd membership (online!) over a year ago. We didn't make as much use out of it as we might, but partly because many of the activities are on a Saturday morning so clashed with Associates.

 

We did however get to watch Company Class and have a backstage tour, both of which were fascinating. I only paid £20 for the year as we're outside the M25.

 

Speaking of missing a trick, I always think the ROH could easily do a ballet-buddies/Junior Friends type scheme.

[taxi4ballet]

Agree that the new ENB website is hard to handle - can't find the interaction events pages anywhere. DD is a ballet buddy so we do get stuff in the post, though.

 

NYB is another one where the pages aren't updated all that often.

[aileen]

I'm probably really shallow, but what first attracted me to Scottish Ballet's new Streetcar was the arresting black and white photograph of Mutso and Barry in the roles of Blanche and Stanley used in all the promotional literature. It was just so different from normal ballet photographs and was very well "staged", if that's the correct term, and lit. Both dancers looked as if they were in a new film of the play and just looked so right in the roles. Barry even had something of Brando about him.

[rowan]

I've never heard of the Ballet Buddy programme. I also think many casual ballet goers would be surprised to learn that ENB and ENO are not a joint enterprise that share ownership of the Coliseum. I only realised this too very recently through reading this forum. I did a quick survey today of my work colleagues, many of whom are casual ballet goers, and everyone was surprised to learn that ENB are classed as a "visiting company".

[alison]

I think that's why ENO objected so vehemently when London Festival Ballet decided to change its name (as did some of the fans). And no, I'm afraid ENB has to rent the Coliseum - and it's not cheap.

 

And where on earth has the ENB website disappeared off to?!!!

[aileen]

Alison, I can understand why London Festival Ballet changed their name. The word "festival" implies something temporary. I assume that ENB have to take all the financial risk when they "rent" the Coliseum and that it is ENB who decide how much to charge for tickets. I'd be interested to know (but I'm sure that I'll never find out!) how much the Coliseum, Sadler's Wells etc charge for renting out their spaces. I still wonder if it wouldn't be more profitable for ENB to hire Sadler's Wells, perhaps for more days, than the Coliseum who, unfortunately, have a bit of a monopoly as a a large theatre.

[Jan McNulty]

As I understand the (non) situation, each visiting company negotiates with each theatre. Sometimes the theatre takes responsibility for any losses and sometimes the visitors or it may be a joint venture.

 

I don't think the word "festival" implies temporary, after all the RFH has been around for many years now! When I first started ballet-watching LFB did regular summer seasons at RFH as well as presenting the Nutcracker there at Christmas.

 

Perhaps SW missed a trick when SWRB moved to Birmingham and they could have offered ENB a base.

[alison]

Alison, I can understand why London Festival Ballet changed their name. The word "festival" implies something temporary.

 

Except it had done them very nicely for the previous 40-odd years before the change . And it did have an association back to the Royal Festival Hall and the Festival of Britain, which is why I think people felt that discarding it was effectively denying its past. It must be about 10 years ago now that I heard £70,000 per week to hire the Coliseum, so heaven knows what it is now!

[GTL]

The Chief Exec ad appeared in the Sunday Times Appointments section of 29 April, accompanied by a photo of Ksenia Ovsyanick as the Firebird:

 

Chief Executive English National Ballet

London

Competitive Package

 

 

English National Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies committed to taking classical ballet of the highest quality to the widest geographical audience. The Company performs to an average of 200,000 people annually in the UK and overseas, and reaches hundreds of thousands more through its learning and outreach activities, broadcast, news, digital media and partnerships.

 

With the recent appointment of Tamara Rojo as ENB's next Artistic Director, the Board is now seeking a Chief Executive to work alongside her to lead the Company through an exciting period of development.

 

The Chief Executive will be responsible for ensuring the Company's financial security and long-term sustainability, shaping its strategic direction and providing strong leadership in an ever changing and challenging environment.

 

The successful candidate will have an outstanding track record of achievement in leadership and management, ideally in the arts or cultural sector, with excellent communication and negotiation skills and strong commercial and financial acumen.

 

For an information pack, please contact Heather Nevill, Director, AEM International Ltd, Arts Entertainment and Media Executive Search, on info@aeminternational.co.uk or 01728 660026.

 

Closing date for applications: Friday, 1^st June 2012

[Pas de Quatre]

I like that fact that the AD appointment was made first, so now anyone applying for Chief Exec knows they will be working with Tamara Rojo.

[annamicro]

I like that fact that the AD appointment was made first, so now anyone applying for Chief Exec knows they will be working with Tamara Rojo.

 

So I could apply. But I'm afraid the only requested selection criterion I have is that' I'd love to work with her.

[zxDaveM]

me too - you beat me to it!! :-)

[aileen]

Is the reference to working "alongside" TR significant? Wouldn't an AD normally be "under" the Chief Executive who would ultimately have the final say on everything? And isn't the application period (one month) very short?

[alison]

Hardly as short as 10 days. It seems perfectly okay to me: ample time to put together a targeted CV and application. And I suppose that at least the candidates know who they're going to have to work with.

 

Grand Tier Left, welcome, and thank you very much for spotting that.

[Jan McNulty]

No I do not think it is significant that the CE will be working alongside the AD. That is what seems to happen at both BRB and NB and seems to work pretty well at both companies.

[aileen]

Janet, who signs off on repertoire and programming? Surely it is the CE as s/he has overall responsibility for the company. I wonder who ENB will appoint.

[Jan McNulty]

I have no prior knowledge but I would have thought it was a combination of AD, CE and board. AD and CE clearly have different functions - the CE looking after the business and administration and the AD looking after the artistic side. The cross-over, I would assume, is the balancing act between an interesting and varied rep for balletomanes and a rep that pulls in the punters.

[bangorballetboy]

I walked past Tamara a short while ago. Made my morning, I'll say!

[Anna C]

How fabulous! :-))

[capybara]

If one looks at the ENB's published accounts, it would appear that the Artistic Director is paid significantly more than the Chief Executive - i.e. the former over £100K per annum, the other quite a bit less. This may, or may not, say something about the inter-relationship of the two posts. Interesting, however, to compare these levels of remuneration with the salaries at the Royal Opera House!

[aileen]

I see that ENB are recruiting a new Marketing Manager, initially on a 6 month contract. I don't know how long this position has been advertised but the closing date is next Monday. Let's hope that ENB's marketing improves following the appointment, particularly in the areas of the website, mailings/e-mailings, friends' schemes, merchandising and pricing (including multi-buy, student and family discounts).