Last Updated on July 10, 2026
English National Ballet School Summer Performance 2026
There was plenty of talent on display in Steps Towards Tomorrow, English National Ballet School’s summer performance, presented at the small Bloomsbury Theatre.
Steps Towards Tomorrow consisted of five tailor-made pieces, followed after the interval by Act III of The Sleeping Beauty in simplified form – a bold choice, bearing in mind we’ve just recently seen that ballet performed by the seasoned dancers of English National Ballet.
English National Ballet School (ENBS) is a finishing school, offering three-year graduation courses. In Steps Towards Tomorrow Year 1 students joined counterparts from Years 2 and 3 in the first piece of the programme, entitled Before Jupiter and set by Juan Eymar, choreographer and ballet tutor at ENBS School, to Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 7’. The printed programme offers a slightly convoluted narrative about “searching for identity, strength and belonging”, but to me it came across a plotless academic exercise designed to showcase the ability of male dancers, and all the better for that. Well placed classic arm movements and proficiency and musical timing in increasingly difficult enchainements made this an interesting watch, enlivened by virtuoso solos by Year 3 dancers Kota Haratani and Kaede Nakajima.
The women came next in Waltz for Eight, choreographed by school director Lynne Charles to Blue Danube by Johan Strauss II. Harking back to the look and manner of Romantic ballet, the eight women from years 2 and 3 wore long black gloves, bejewelled ribbons over their brows and a black sash across long white skirts, and their movements oscillated between the sweep of flowing water and the twee mannerisms of the ballroom. They performed well.
A complete change of mood came with Say What? a fun short piece choreographed by Martha Graham specialist Sarah Sulemanji to music set to Funky Wiggly Lines by Harrison Chang Goldsmith and Alan Watts. Year 2 students in soft shoes, black trousers and white shirts over differently coloured leotards, clearly enjoyed letting their hair down to a funky contemporary piece that seemed to speak to them.
Also contemporary, but more serious in tone, was Thrum of Bones choreographed by Liam Blair to vocal and percussive music, and focused on rhythm, with increasingly complex structures, by turns athletic and gentle. It was a demanding ensemble piece and Year 3 did it justice.
The first half of Steps Towards Tomorrow ended with W.I.G.U – When I Grow Up, a concept piece by Lynn Charles, danced by Year 1, where two young people look to the future and ponder what career to follow. Will the girl, the charming Kano Hashizumi, become a tennis player (cue two girls brandishing rackets), a cheerleader (here come the pompoms) or a ballerina (two couples embody the option)? Will the boy, Toby Walker, become a swimmer (two men in swimming caps show him the ropes), or an ice skater, maybe… Or will they become doctors, as suggested by two figures in long white coats? It’s a nice idea, and everybody gave it their all, but it went on for far too long.
Act III of Sleeping Beauty celebrates the wedding of Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré. Adapted here from the Kenneth MacMillan version danced by ENB, it’s still a tremendous ask, particularly out of context and on a bare stage – I wonder why ENBS didn’t provide a backcloth projection of a sumptuous ballroom, the better to anchor the scene. I’m assuming all performers were Year 3, and on the whole they tackled the many difficult variations with aplomb, Rei Kida particularly impressive as Gold in the Jewels section.
Kaeda Nakajima and Yuna Shiozawa gave us a very good Bluebird pas de deux, sadly abridged to exclude the individual variations. Maho Yanahari was an assured Aurora, ably supported by Rocco Strickland, whose looks and elegance mark him out as a danseur noble of the future. He was an able partner – they delivered themselves with impressive aplomb of three challenging fish dives – but again, I missed the individual variations which could have told me a little more about themselves as dancers.
Never mind: all this tool place in energy-sapping heat, but you wouldn’t know it from the performances. Well done the students of ENBS!
Steps Towards Tomorrow is at Bloomsbury Theatre, 9 – 11 July. Evening performances at 7 pm, matinees at 2.30 pm
Dur.: 2 hours 15 mins inc one interval. Tickets: £20 (concessions available)
Bloomsbury Theatre
15 Gordon Street
London WC1H 0AH
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