English National Ballet is offering best seats for its current London Coliseum season this week for £10 as it tries to broaden the potential ballet audience from the familiar pleasures of Swan Lake or The Nutcracker to the sophisticated delights and entertainment of the Ballets Russes era.
All best available seats are now priced at a tenner. To take advantage of this offer visit www.eno.org [1] or call the London Coliseum Box office on 0871 911 0200 and quote RUSSES.
The second half of the Beyond Ballets Russes season, from tonight till Sunday, draws on the stars of Serge Diaghilev's legendary company - the choreographers, composers and designers - to create a programme that will challenge ENB's dancers to the highest level of technique and stage charisma. One of the classics of the 1920s, Apollo, by George Balanchine, is a depiction of (according to possible levels of interpretation) a god being instructed in the arts by three goddesses, or a lad getting some elegant lessons in sexual manners from three ladies. Also on the bill is the chic, glamorous tutu ballet, Suite en blanc, by Diaghilev's last star, Serge Lifar.
In between those milestones are short ballets associated with the star Nijinsky and his sister, the great choreographer Nijinska. A new version of Jeux by ENB director Wayne Eagling [2] uses Debussy's original score and there's also a rare chance to see an extract from Nijinska's Le train bleu, a clipped Twenties satire on the Riviera pleasures of Paris high society, whose original costumes by Coco Chanel and magnificent frontcloth by Pablo Picasso were displayed in last year's superb V&A Museum Diaghilev exhibition [3].
As always with the Ballets Russes heritage, the music is an attraction all on its own, with scores by Stravinsky, Debussy, Lalo and Milhaud.
- English National Ballet website has more details of the programme [4]
- English National Ballet perform Swan Lake at the London Coliseum 3-11 August [5]
- English National Ballet 2012 season listings [6]
Watch English National Ballet perform an extract of Suite en blanc