English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer Competition is a deservedly beloved highlight of the company’s year. It does so much more than it says on the tin; aside from showcasing six young corps de ballet dancers in principal roles, it provides valuable opportunities for senior dancers to develop mentoring skills, commissions choreography and new music in the contemporary section, and reinforces the sense of community for which this company is renowned. The auditorium at the final performance is always well-stocked with dancers from the company cheering on their comrades.
The competition also highlights, as Artistic Director Aaron Watkin pointed out in his commentary, the extreme challenges of this particular art form. The physical demands are obvious, but the mental strength that dancers need is, by requirement, hidden by artistry, and it is very significant. From an early age one is acutely aware that one may not succeed in getting one’s foot on the very first rung on the career-ladder. Once that step has been achieved, life is a procession of hopes and dreams at the mercy of casting decisions and injuries.
No wonder, then, that competitions such as Emerging Dancer engender bad cases of nerves in performance. Nerves are not just the cause of falling off a pirouette or mistiming a lift. They can make you feel as if your body has completely seized up and that you no longer recognise your own physique. A very flexible dancer may feel that her legs won’t go beyond forty-five degrees; a strong turner may struggle with a straightforward sequence of piqué turns; a dancer with very strong ankles and feet suddenly can’t manage the hops on pointe. Watching back on video, one is usually relieved to see that it didn’t look as bad as it felt, but it is a truly horrible sensation.
In light of this, the ability to get up and carry on deserves respect, and all three participating couples in Emerging Dancer had not insignificant mishaps in the classical pas de deux from which they recovered with grace – an important move forward on their learning curve. Classical ballet is so hard! And hugely challenging pas de deux are selected.
Anna-Babette Winkler, a sincere dancer who won the company’s Corps de Ballet Award, and her partner Jose María Lorca Menchón, made a valiant effort with the Act 2 pas de deux from La Bayadère, and there were many lovely moments; I enjoyed Lorca Menchón’s stage presence and nobility of bearing, and Winkler’s delicacy, but the piece was a stretch too far for them at this stage.
They were both excellent in the duet from Akram Khan’s lovely Dust; this is extraordinary in its complexity of constructions, MacMillan-esque in its innovativeness, and the dancers coped brilliantly with its off-balance use of weight and counter-weight, layering their skills with intensity of feeling and expression.
Breanna Foad and Thiago Pereira, dancing the stylistically difficult Satanella pas de deux, both showed exciting potential. Foad is strong and elegant, Pereira a virtuoso in development, with oodles of charm and charisma. They were also excellent in Penrose, a new piece by Ching-Ying Chien, who on this evidence is a choreographer to watch. She managed to convey, with exemplary clarity, the feeling of being on an endless Penrose staircase, one that loops back on itself constantly in the manner of Escher, so that one can never escape from it. The balance of power between the two dancers also loops back on itself, as the manipulative puppeteering of Foad by Pereira gradually evolves into its inverse, with Pereira prone and Foad in control. Excellent work from all concerned, including composer Joe Ashwin’s score.
I noticed the technical potential of Shunhei Fuchiyama at the Prix de Lausanne in 2021 and he is developing beautifully at English National Ballet. The pas de deux from Don Quixote certainly gave him the chance to show off his virtuosity, but also revealed some partnering weaknesses that can be remedied with strong coaching. He and his partner Anna Ciriano, a dancer whose stagecraft and love of performance are evident and who may well become a fine dance-actress, were not well-matched as a couple, but both produced exciting performances and recovered well from a nasty fall after a badly mistimed overhead lift. Watch out for these two; their paths will take separate trajectories but will both lead upward. They were good, too, in Rentaro Nakaaki’s choreographically promising Moya.
This year’s well-deserving Emerging Dancer is Breanna Foad. Congratulations to all and to the remarkable Gavin Sutherland, whose sensitive conducting helped the young dancers (and Precious Adams and Eric Snyder who sparkled through Delibes Suite by José Martinez as a divertissement) to provide a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Adams made history by winning the People’s Choice Award for the second time.
