This autumn will see English National Ballet’s 2017 - 2018 Autumn/Winter season get off to a flying start. It will include two works new to English National Ballet’s repertoire: Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s masterwork, Song of the Earth, and Frank Andersen’s La Sylphide, performed on tour at the Manchester Palace Theatre, Milton Keynes Theatre, and at the London Coliseum, where Roland Petite’s Le Jeune Homme et la Mort will also be revived. Akram Khan’s Giselle will return to London and tour to Liverpool for the first time, and Rudolf Nureyev’s Romeo & Juliet will return to Bristol in its 40th anniversary year.
First performed in 1965, MacMillan’s choreography for Song of the Earth was different from anything he had previously devised. Featuring three central figures, a Woman, a Man, and a Messenger, this powerful exploration of life, death, and renewal is set to Mahler’s song cycle, Das Liede von der Erde, performed live by English National Ballet Philharmonic. The performances of Song of the Earth coincide with the 25th anniversary of MacMillan’s death, and it is a powerful example of MacMillan’s choreographic style.
Devised by one of the world's leading producers of Bournonville ballets, Frank Andersen’s version of the 1830s Romantic ballet La Sylphide sees James wake from a dream on the morning of his wedding to encounter a mysterious sylphide before him, setting off a fateful sequence of events. This is the first time Andersen’s La Sylphide has been performed in the UK. Roland Petit’s Le Jeune Homme follows a young man compelled by love for a cruel mistress. He desperately waits for her but when she finally arrives, it is to torment him, and he succumbs to his despair. Following its sold out, critically acclaimed run last year, Akram Khan’s Giselle returns with performances at Sadler’s Wells and the Liverpool Empire Theatre. Khan’s Giselle is a story of a community of migrant workers cast out of their jobs in a condemned garment factory.