English National Ballet

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English National Ballet is one of the leading ballet companies in the United Kingdom.

It was founded in 1950 as the Festival Ballet (named after the Festival of Britain which was due to take place in 1951) by Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin ^[1], and is a touring company which performs around the UK. It has a permanent company of 64 members and its own orchestra, the Orchestra of English National Ballet, which is the largest touring orchestra with any ballet company in Europe. Both the ballet company and the orchestra are augmented for performances in large venues, including an annual season at London's Royal Albert Hall which is located close to the ENB Head Offices in Markova House, 39 Jay Mews, London SW7 2ES. This season sees the number of dancers rise from 64 to 120, backed up by approximately 80 members of staff behind-the-scenes, in departments such as marketing, artistic, wardrobe, technical, administration and education.

Principal dancers have included Spanish Tamara Rojo, Cubans Arionel Vargas, Yat-Sen Chang and Yosvani Ramos, Japanese Erina Takahashi, Russian Dmitri Gruzdyev, Italians Roberto Bolle and Ambra Vallo, Estonian Agnes Oaks.

The Guardian newspaper reported on 21 December 2006 that current principal dancer Simone Clarke was a member of the far-right British National Party. The company management did not take any action against Clarke who has spoken openly in her support for the BNP.^[2]