<B>Ballet dances in rival territory </B><BR>Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent<BR>Guardian<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The English National Ballet is about to pirouette into the lion's den, the home of its arch rival, the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. <P>"We will of course be anxious to put our best foot forward," artistic director Matz Skoog said yesterday. <P>The distance between their London performing bases, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, and the Coliseum in St Martin's Lane, is only about half a mile geographically, but huge artistically. The English National Ballet has been seen as younger, sharper, more willing to take risks, and much cheaper; the Royal Ballet as grander, faithful to the classical tradition, and much wealthier. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4376920,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><P><BR>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The English National Ballet has been seen as younger, sharper, more willing to take risks, and much cheaper; the Royal Ballet as grander, faithful to the classical tradition, and much wealthier.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Hmmm....much as i have enjoyed ENB performances over the pst few years, I have to say that the above statement by Maev Kennedy surprised me, as the most avant-garde work that ENB currently perform is Balanchine's 'Apollo' from the 1920s. The days of 'Swansong' and other innovative works seen in the 1980s is long gone. However, the final comparison on money available is right and therein lies the problem for ENB's conventional programming. <BR>

What a curious juxtaposition to have ENB in the exotic company slot. I am very pleased for ENB but I hope that those who normally frequent the Royal Opera House also frequent ENB's normal residence, the Coliseum and therefore will not be seeing ENB for the first time. I lament the fact that we are not introduced to a foreign company that we do not normally see in London. It will be interesting to see what happens with the ticket prices.

It's a good point about the prices Emma. My memory is that the top price for the 2 or 3 nights of the mixed Bill at the Coli was around £25 - half the price of the full-length works. <p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited March 19, 2002).]

Here's the announcement on the ENB website. no mention of the ticket prices.<BR> <A HREF="http://www.ballet.org.uk/news/roh.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.ballet.org.uk/news/roh.html</A>