English National Ballet in rehearsal for Jerome Robbins’s The Cage

For the past few weeks, we have been counting down to English National Ballet’s Voices of America, a new mixed bill that will feature not one, but two ballets by William Forsythe (one being a world premiere, YASSSS!), alongside the revival of Aszure Barton’s Fantastic Beings, and the company premiere of Jerome Robbins’s The Cage. Originally choreographed for New York City Ballet, The Cage is also in the repertory of companies like San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and the Bolshoi. Set to Stravinsky’s haunting Concerto in D, the ballet is a chilling depiction of a world ruled by natural selection and dominated by female insects.

These performances are ENB’s homage to Robbins’s centenary year and we recently had the opportunity to drop in on company rehearsals to watch the work of repetiteur Diana White, a former NYCB dancer and Robbins contemporary, as she coached the corps de ballet, as well as dancers Jurgita Dronina and Begoña Cao, respectively, the Novice and the Queen:

English National Ballet performs Voices of America at Sadler’s Wells, London from 12 to 21 April, 2018. For more information and to book tickets, visit ENB’s website.