Taking centre stage: Preview to Re-Play 2025

What is Re-Play?

Every year English National Ballet gathers some of the talent from our incredible programmes taking place across London and the UK, to provide performing and sharing opportunities.

With two performances on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 March, 85 dancers from Ballet Club, Dance for Parkinson’s Performance Company, ENBEldersCo, ENBYouthCo and ENBYouthCo-nnect will take centre stage in the Holloway Production Studio at our home in East London, the Mulryan Centre for Dance.

What is Re-Play inspired by this year?

Celebrating English National Ballet 75th season, dancers re-work and re-play choreography inspired by 75 years of the Company’s dance legacy.

Who will be performing?

Alongside ENB programme dancers, Re-Play will also see a performance from English National Ballet School, who will dance an excerpt from act III of Ronald Hynd’s Coppélia.

ENB Lead Principal Dancer Sangeun Lee and Principal Dancer Gareth Haw will also dance the Location duet from William Forsythe’s Playlist (EP). This pieces combines ballet classicism with unexpected music – the R&B track Location by Khalid – creating a different style of pas de deux. See William Forsythe’s work live at Sadler’s Wells this April at The Forsythe Programme.

ENBYouthCo-nnect

Performing: Echoes of Études

Choreographer: Jenna Lee
Music Composition and Production: Dantae Johnson and Lloyd Perrin
Rapper/Lyricist: Obi

This piece draws inspiration from the iconic ballet Études, using the five basic ballet positions as its foundation—but with a rebellious edge. The voice of tradition sets the scene, echoing the discipline of classical technique, only for it to be remixed and reimagined.

Rooted in English National Ballet’s legacy, whilst infused with new energy, Echoes of Études celebrates the next generation of dancers, as they carry it forward with creativity and new perspectives.

English National Ballet School

Performing: Waltz of the Hours – Excerpt from Act III of Coppélia

Choreographer: Ronald Hynd after Marius Petipa (1985)
Stagers: Amanda Armstrong, Nicola Simpson (Year 1 Women’s Ballet Tutors, English National Ballet School)

The villagers assemble for the harvest festival which is celebrated with dances for Swanilda’s and Franz’s wedding feast.

ENBEldersCo

Performing: Forever in mind

Choreographer: Stina Quagebeur
Music Composition: Jeremy Birchall
1st Violin: Matthew Scrivener
Cello: Ann Line
Costume Design: Louie Whitemore and Evelien Van Camp

This new work is inspired by the story of Carmen – a ballet that ENB has performed in two different versions, by Roland Petit and, more recently, Johan Inger. Don Jose may have killed Carmen but years later she is still forever present in his mind. 

ENBYouthCo

Performing: Between Worlds

Choreographers: Carolyn Bolton, Jane Chan
Music Composition: Jordan Hunt

Between Worlds explores themes surrounding displacement, despair, longing, transformation, and resilience. Drawing inspiration from William Forsythe’s Blake Works I and the sentiments of Akram Khan’s Giselle, dancers move between neoclassical and Kathak-influenced movements, creating an emotional arc from tension to release and isolation to connection.

Through the embodied experiences of the dancers and makers, the work reflects the universal experience of humanity, a dance of love and loss, and the way relationships—like the body—are ever-changing.

Dance for Parkinsons Performance Company

Performing: With love,
                           Us xx

Choreographer: Arielle Smith
Rehearsal Director: Hannah Wilson
Music Composition and Performance: Jon Petter, Reina Okada Costume Design: Louie Whitemore and Evelien Van Camp

Over the last few weeks, I have had the immense pleasure of working with this wonderful group. Our piece is inspired by Jolly Folly, our happy places and our dance heroes. We’ve created this piece together as a group with lots of love, joy and letting that inner child within us all come out. We hope you enjoy this dance we made. With love, Us xx

English National Ballet dancers: Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw

Performing: Location duet from Playlist (EP)

Choreographer: William Forsythe
Music: Khalid

William Forsythe has been pushing the boundaries of ballet for decades. This duet, from his piece Playlist (EP), combines ballet classicism with unexpected music – the R&B track Location by Khalid – creating a different style of pas de deux.

Presented by kind permission of William Forsythe.

Ballet Club

Performing: Playback

Choreographer: Ciara Clayton
Rehearsal Director Hannah Cameron
Music: Impossible – Jax Jones Remix by LION BABE

A celebration of creativity and unity, Playback is a dynamic dance piece inspired by William Forsythe’s Playlist (EP) highlighting the joy and freedom of dancing to an upbeat, spirited track, as the dancers revel in the shared experience of movement, breaking free from the constraints of a traditional ballet class.

How can I get involved?

We’ve got plenty of opportunities for you to get dancing. Alongside our ENB programmes, we also run our Classes for All every Tuesday and Wednesday at the Mulryan Centre for Dance in Canning Town.  

Click here to find out more about how you can take to the studio or join us digitally through BalletActive.