ENB seeks new home

[Anna C]

I agree ENB is accessible yet it usually fails to sell out even with cheap tickets.

In general a narrow rep is all the public are willing to pay to go to notwithstanding many efforts over many decades to broaden the appeal of classical ballet.

Should private promoters who bring touring companies be given grants to lower their ticket prices rather than give such a large subsidy to ENB?. Some of the companies are smaller and some of a lower quality than ENB but they visit towns ENB does not & some are as good in quality.

 

Well surely were that to happen, UK taxpayers' money would be going towards "foreign dancers" in companies from abroad? How is that acceptable to you when apparently your problem is that UK taxpayers' money subsidises "foreign dancers" and Management within ENB?

[capybara]

Just as a matter of interest............

 

Overall within the ENB Company there are many more than twice the number of employees from the UK than there are from abroad. And, additionally, a number of ENB's 'foreign' dancers and artistic staff are either from the EU or have obtained, or are seeking, British Citizenship.

 

But, of course, we have discussed all this before - and not so long ago.

[Jan McNulty]

I agree ENB is accessible yet it usually fails to sell out even with cheap tickets.

In general a narrow rep is all the public are willing to pay to go to notwithstanding  many efforts over many decades to broaden the appeal of classical ballet.

Should private promoters who bring  touring companies be given grants to lower their ticket prices rather than give such a large subsidy to ENB?. Some of the companies are smaller and some of a lower quality than ENB but they visit towns ENB does not & some are as good in quality. 

 

Restor, could I ask where you are based?

 

As someone who does not live within commutable distance to London to see all the dance there, I welcome the risks that are taken by the British companies in taking lesser known rep outside of London.  I was thrilled to enjoy Le Corsaire in Milton Keynes (I have a friend who lives there) and Manchester and, I might add, the Nutcracker sold heavily in Liverpool last Autumn (and the Empire has one of the largest capacities in this country).

 

I would be grateful if you could advise which of the foreign companies you are touting are worth seeing.

[taxi4ballet]

It's also worth remembering that ENB organises a large number of dance workshops and other events both at Markova House and at various theatres around the county during their tours. They also have a highly regarded youth company.

[restor]

Yes there are often more people backstage than on but perhaps taxpayers money could be better spent on smaller Uk companies who get no funding and on enabling disadvantaged groups to see visiting companies  and on dance education in schools. The ENB  subsidy which works out at about £25 per ticket could be less and end up doing more for ballet in the UK. If the price of seeing ENB went up by £15 for a top price ticket or £5 for the low price I doubt if that would reduce the audience. Odd that we all think the price of a ticket to certain things should be subsidised yet the price of a ticket to a sports event or cinema for example should not

[Jan McNulty]

Very good point Taxi.  When the company were at the Empire last year there were about 8 events listed on the leaflet, a couple for Friends but most open to members of the public.

[Jan McNulty]

Restor,

 

Could you please answer my questions?

[restor]

I am not touting any company- ENB does of course visit fewer venues than many touring companies small and large. The arts grant for ballet is limited and perhaps could be better spent giving more access and enabling more events.

[Jan McNulty]

I am not touting any company- ENB does of course visit fewer venues than many touring companies small and large. The arts grant for ballet is limited and perhaps could be better spent giving more access and enabling more events.

 

Do you have an issue with telling us where you are based Restor?  I would also be grateful for your recommendations on the foreign visitors I should look out for.

[aileen]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'disadvantaged groups' but ENB has schools matinees, runs Dance for Parkinson's classes and has welcomed to the Coliseum children with life-threatening illnesses for a performance of The Nutcracker. These are the things that I can immediately think of. I'm sure that there are plenty of others.

[aileen]

On the subject of funding smaller UK companies, I have no problem with discussing this but I don't see why ENB should be singled out as the company which should lose some or all of its funding. There is a good argument for a slice of the four large companies' funding being given to Ballet Black and BTUK who receive very little funding (or none in the case of BTUK?).

[capybara]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'disadvantaged groups' but ENB has schools matinees, runs Dance for Parkinson's classes and has welcomed to the Coliseum children with life-threatening illnesses for a performance of The Nutcracker. These are the things that I can immediately think of. I'm sure that there are plenty of others.

 

I believe I heard somewhere that ENB's Dance for Parkinsons initiative has recently been extended to Manchester.

[alison]

Your reference to foreign management is, I assume, a reference to Tamara Rojo's appointment which most people would regard as uncontroversial in terms of nationality given her many years of dancing in the UK in three different companies including ENB.

 

Preceded by a Canadian, a Swede, a solitary Briton, a Hungarian (I think), a Dane ... - so I don't see any particular need to complain about the current "foreign management".

[alison]

but perhaps taxpayers money could be better spent on smaller Uk companies who get no funding and on enabling disadvantaged groups to see visiting companies  and on dance education in schools. The ENB  subsidy which works out at about £25 per ticket could be less and end up doing more for ballet in the UK. If the price of seeing ENB went up by £15 for a top price ticket or £5 for the low price I doubt if that would reduce the audience.

 

Assuming that by "dance education" you mean education about ballet/contemporary dance, rather than doing dance as part of the sports curriculum, wouldn't your proposals firstly put the cost of "disadvantaged groups" (assuming there's an aspect of financial disadvantage there) going to see normal performances even further out of reach, and secondly (if you effectively abolished the ENB grant) reduce still further the opportunities for schoolchildren to see the dance they are being educated about?

[chrischris]

I wonder if any of the RB, ENB, BRB or NB could survive without Arts Council funding?

[Two Pigeons]

I think the honest answer to that one has to be NO.  Without ACE funding the Opera House would either become prohibitively expensive or it would close.  The other companies you mention could not survive in their current forms and life in this country would be (as far as I am concerned) considerably poorer without it.  

[aileen]

The large ballet companies have huge running costs because they have orchestras as well as dancers plus all the 'backstage' support. Staging a full length classical ballet is a very expensive business. Ballet companies also have additional departments (eg costume, physiotherapist) which, say, orchestras don't have. Many dancers will have several roles and therefore several costumes for a single production.

[Pas de Quatre]

ENB's dance for Parkinsons is also at Pavilion Dance South West in Bournemouth.

[Bruce Wall]

I wonder if any of the RB, ENB, BRB or NB could survive without Arts Council funding?

 

While I realise this is in large measure a rhetorical question ... surely ... I have this fantastical hope that in Tamara Rojo's ENB case at least the answer might prove positive.  While it might not be in my lifetime I would like to think that the hope for a positive reply might at least persist; that ENB might independently survive as 'the people's ballet' simply because enough English people believe that it deserves to.  Of course such a title has to be earned and continually renewed.  That is the excitement of their charter as much as our (i.e. the English peoples') good faith.  Surely that was the hope in giving LFB England's 'National' esteem.  May ENB live long after the title 'UK' has become but a historical artifact.  After all the reality that we now know as Shakespeare's Globe has come to thrive without a penny from the ACE purse.  Still, their glorious music (spoken, sung, filmed, danced and instrumentally played) and all the very fine production values that surround such continue to engage. Moreover, their admirable Education Department meaningfully instructs a far greater number than that heavily subsidized Juggernaut that is the RSC.  Furthermore, an international audience has come to own the 'Globe' brand - for the foreseeable future - as their own.  For many tourist's what they enjoy as 'Shakespeare's Globe' now helps to define part of their 'English experience'.  Perhaps what ENB needs most - much as Lincoln Kirstein did for Balanchine - is their own brand of a Sam Wanamaker.  Does such a beast now exist somewhere?  I pray that it does. Therein - inside just such an astutely caring maverick body - lies the key to both ENB's continued magic making and its 'rub' methinks.  Perhaps that is what ACE should be insisting be sought - above and beyond any real estate agreement.  

Edited July 20, 2014 by Bruce Wall

[alison]

Surely that was the hope in giving LFB England's 'National' esteem.  

 

Call me a cynic, Bruce, but I'm pretty sure it was a purely marketing decision a quarter of a century ago 

[Bruce Wall]

Call me a cynic, Bruce, but I'm pretty sure it was a purely marketing decision a quarter of a century ago 

 

IF that was so, Alison, - and I for one pray that it wasn't but but an insulting commercial slap in the face of the English all - surely our job now is to stand up with pride in face of such an unfortunate - I might almost say ignorant - historic spite.  Call me an idealist, Alison, but (at least as far as I was taught on this goodly soil) two wrongs don't - and never will - make a right.  

Edited July 20, 2014 by Bruce Wall

[Melody]

I think comparisons with New York are a bit dangerous. The two major companies, NYCB and ABT are quite different - NYCB has practically all American dancers, taken from their school, and rely heavily on the Balanchine-Robbins repertoire and other contemporary choreographers. ABT is full of foreign dancers, especially at the top, and a wider repertoire including more popular pieces.

 

At the moment it looks as though RB and ENB are going after the same audience, with a makeup a lot more like ABT in both cases and an ENB artistic director who's just been imported from RB. There may be competition while they try to outdo each other, but they're basically fighting over the same turf, artistically and commercially.

 

I can see why ENB is reluctant to tour, especially with so much of Britain's wealth and disposable income concentrated in London these days, and I gather the provincial touring was part of the reason Vadim Muntagirov decided to jump ship, but when government funding for things like arts is getting smaller and smaller, it's going to be hard to make a case to subsidise two companies that increasingly look like one company performing in two London theatres.

[Melody]

Speaking as a tax payer who lives in deepest Worcestershire I think that ENB strives very hard to be an accessible company. In addition to their touring when they appear in London they do at least offer matinees. The average non-London balletomane has a far greater chance of getting to see them than they have for the Royal.

 

I agree with the point that the nation's ballet going audience has not grown that much over the years and I feel far too much is being stressed on the cinema relays from the Opera House as bringing in a new audience. It is undoubtedly a start but, without wishing to repeat myself, the pretty narrow repertory is hardly educating the public that much.

 

I totally agree with your comments about cinema relays. Considering how convenient it is to go to the local cinema and (usually) how much cheaper, you'd think RB might take the risk with relays of some of the triple bills rather than constantly showing the big full-length ballets, to the point that we get repeats of last year's Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty rather than any of the new triple bills. Maybe if they showed some of their triple bills via cinema relay and people in the provinces went to see them, they might realise that they actually were worth seeing, and that might make it easier to sell tickets when the touring companies came along with their live performances of something slightly unusual.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Melody

[alison]

IF that was so, Alison,

 

Well, obviously I don't remember the precise wording 25 years on, Bruce, but I'm sure you'll find the press release in the dance press of the time if you care to look.  I definitely remember it being (my words) that "London" was felt to be too parochial, so they decided to go for "English" instead.

[Bruce Wall]

ABT ...  including more popular pieces.

 

 

 

It has been pointed out that ABT's current prices for the orchestra (stalls) seats at the Koch Theater during their Fall (Autumn) season are higher than ANY other company that has ever performed in the building since NY State Theater was built and that includes the current commercial run of the Bolshoi.  

 

I, too, am disappointed at the RB's restriction of Cinema relay programmes - especially given their enormous subsidy.  I would like to think that ACE might insist (is that too strong a word) on programmes being shown that have NOT been broadcast more than once -or indeed once - within a couple of seasons.  Of course, the leader in this field - the Bolshoi - are also repeating more and more recent/popular repertory - and not,say, their new production of Taming of the Shrew.   This is disappointing.  I felt it was a shame that more support wasn't given here to the POB relays which did offer a very varied repertory (e.g., Caligula) past but one season.  It attracted small audiences true but it wasn't I felt given an opportunity to succeed; to build.  If Kirstein had not supported the reality of small audiences and failure in early years in New York (lest we forget Ballet Society / NYCB was the third attempt at building a company the two great men launched) just think of the masterworks we celebrate today (e.g., like Four Temperments which attracted a large audience (including me) at the Chatalet in Paris on Saturday when it was very well performed by SFB.  That said, decades of free educational incentives for 'joe punter' - and which Balanchine insisted on - has I think paid off in some areas for NYCB and POB.  Those programmes in tandem with the NYC Library - wonderful as they are - are a far cry from 'giving access' at £17 or £12 per head. 

 

That said the audiences at the Royal have grown - disproportionately it seems - to other companies - in recent years; especially for new work.  Can that merely have been the Royal imprinter attracting a growth of tourists who may have been encouraged through the overwhelming and deserved increase in tourists as the deserved result of the 2012 Olympics?  If the Olympics were so potent invite why are the same tourists not flocking to ENB / Sadler's Wells?  (That is merely a suggestion for discussion.)  

 

It will be interesting to see once/when salaries begin to increase to balance out the ravages of (for many people the on-going) recession if there will be a further growth in renewed hunger for the art form at an address outside of Bow Street?  I, myself, am fearful that there won't but live in hope. 

Edited July 21, 2014 by Bruce Wall

[Bruce Wall]

ABT ... including more popular pieces.

 

 

I was editing my post and it passed the half-hour dictum - (sorry,dyslexics are - as a rule - slow in such pursuits) - so - in fairness to myself - am posting the revision anew.

 

It has been pointed out that ABT's current prices for the orchestra (stalls) seats at the Koch Theater during their Fall (Autumn) season are higher than ANY other company that has ever performed in the building since NY State Theater was built and that includes the current commercial run of the Bolshoi.  

 

I, too, am disappointed at the RB's restriction of Cinema relay programmes - especially given their enormous subsidy.  I would like to think that ACE might insist (is that too strong a word) on programmes being shown that have NOT been broadcast more than once -or indeed once - within a couple of seasons.  Of course, the leader in this field - the Bolshoi - are also repeating more and more recent/popular repertory - and not,say, their new production of Taming of the Shrew.   This is disappointing.  I felt it was a shame that more support wasn't given here to the POB relays which did offer a very varied repertory (e.g., Caligula) past but one season.  It attracted small audiences true but it wasn't I felt given an opportunity to succeed; to build.  If Kirstein had not supported the reality of small audiences and failure in early years in New York (lest we forget Ballet Society / NYCB was the third attempt at building a company the two great men launched) just think of the masterworks we celebrate today that might have been forever lost (e.g., like Four Temperments which attracted a large audience [including me] at the Chatalet in Paris on Saturday when it was very well performed by SFB.  That said, decades of free educational incentives for 'joe punter' - which Balanchine insisted on - has I think paid off in some areas for NYCB and POB.  During some of those 17.5 years I lived in NYC I, myself, volunteered to hand out insight material for free to any and all NYCB audience members - such as are only available to RB audience members with the purchase of an expensive programme - and occasionally led (and I was just one of a great many) free docent talks on the fourth ring.  Dancers would volunteer their time to come up and speak with people wafting up the stairs.  I well remember Darci Kistler (many more times than just once), Jenifer Ringer, Merrill Ashley and others being most generous in offering their time.  Those free programmes that are still run in tandem with the NYC Library - wonderful as they are - are a far cry from giving 'insight' access at £17 or £12 per head. 

 

THAT SAID the audiences at the Royal have grown - disproportionately it seems to other companies - in recent years; especially for new work.  Kevin O'Hare must be doing something right.  Can that merely have been the Royal imprinter attracting a growth of tourists who may have been encouraged through the overwhelming and deserved increase in tourists as a result of the 2012 Olympics success internationally?  If the Olympics were such a potent invite why are the same tourists not flocking to ENB / Sadler's Wells?  (That is merely a suggestion for discussion.)

 

It will be interesting to see once/when salaries begin to increase to balance out the ravages of (for many people the on-going) recession if there will be a further growth in renewed hunger for the art form at an address well outside of Bow Street?  I, myself, am fearful that there won't but remain happy to live in hope. 

Edited July 21, 2014 by Bruce Wall

[Two Pigeons]

If I may return to the fray, the rebranding of LFB happened when I still lived in London and I would like to thank Peter Schaufuss for some of my happiest ballet going memories when he was at the helm.  But, back to the point, my memory of it is that the company said that the problem was the word 'Festival' as this indicated when they were abroad that it was not a permanent company.  Merely one which was put together for a short term purpose.  I don't think 'London ' was the issue.  

[bangorballetboy]

If I may return to the fray, the rebranding of LFB happened when I still lived in London and I would like to thank Peter Schaufuss for some of my happiest ballet going memories when he was at the helm.  But, back to the point, my memory of it is that the company said that the problem was the word 'Festival' as this indicated when they were abroad that it was not a permanent company.  Merely one which was put together for a short term purpose.  I don't think 'London ' was the issue.  

 

That's interesting.  However, the official line is that the name was changed to reflect that the company had become a significant touring company.

[Two Pigeons]

sorry, it's me again.  My previous post went on before I saw Bruce's last missive.  I am not sure that other companies' audiences should be judged against the Royal's.  The Royal has a number of great advantages, not least the building which is a tourist destination in itself.  Secondly, although there is a very devoted and informed audience it is not the whole story.  There is also so a significant 'corporate' one which will turn up regardless of what is on and adds very little to the advancement of the art form.  This means that the company has to work less hard at 'putting bums on seats'.  

 

One final point about the cinema relays, the Royal is presenting Manon, one production of which there is actually a matinee. However, the programme I would really like to see, the Ashton one, is not being broadcast and as far as I remember does not have a matinee performance.  I think it is a really shame that the company's founder choreographer gets so little representation. It seems to be a case that if it is not Fille Mal Gardee there is no chance of it getting to a wider audience, despite the fact that so many companies around the world are now doing his works.

[alison]

I wonder if the cinema take-up for the last Ashton bill, which they did record, even if it wasn't broadcast live, has put them off trying again.

 

Am now waiting to see when we get the complaints about an ENB thread being hijacked by the RB again

[Pas de Quatre]

I would need to do some research to check the dates, but wasn't the renaming of LFB to ENB also connected to the relocation of Western Theatre Ballet to Glasgow and its renaming as Scottish Ballet?  Thus both England and Scotland would have their own National companies in addition to RB. 

[Jan McNulty]

No, Scottish Ballet was already in Scotland when I first started watching ballet in 1984.  ENB only took that name around 1989?

[bangorballetboy]

I would need to do some research to check the dates, but wasn't the renaming of LFB to ENB also connected to the relocation of Western Theatre Ballet to Glasgow and its renaming as Scottish Ballet?  Thus both England and Scotland would have their own National companies in addition to RB. 

 

Scottish Ballet took that name in 1974.  ENB name change was, as Janet said, in 1989.