Dance Journeys 2021

Presentation

Dance Journeys has been a flagship, annual schools programme for English National Ballet [ENB] since its launch in West London in 2013. With ENB’s move to a new East London home, we are excited to develop this model, to engage new communities and nurture new relationships.

Dance Journeys will enable young people from different secondary schools to create and perform, working with professional choreographers. Over 12 weeks, each school will develop a segment in weekly professionally led 2-hour choreographic workshops. Young people will be responding to ENB’s current repertoire, giving a strong artistic narrative. All schools will then come together for full-day rehearsals combining their segments into one performance with a joint finale. Young people will then take to the stage, performing a matinee in front of an invited audience at a national theatre.

Dance Journeys is an in-depth project, unleashing the imagination and raising aspirations of young people aged 13-16. Those taking part will access high-quality arts within a formal learning environment, enabling them to grow in confidence and apply skills to other areas of learning. It will connect young people to a range of industry professionals and a national ballet company, gaining insight into careers, training and the art form, and show a wider audience of over 1,000 people the potential of young people’s creativity.

Dance Journeys is a collaborative project, with pupils of different backgrounds working together. Joining them in the performance will be ENBYouthCo, our youth company. We will also commission a composer for an original score, to be recorded live by the Royal College of Music Juniors Department. Finally, ENBSchool pupils and ENB dancers will each perform extracts of classical/contemporary works at the matinee, providing further ballet insight. We are thrilled to bring this aspirational project showcasing the reach and relevance of ballet to new audiences in 2021.

Artistic Team