© Oliver Lim Natasha Rogai interview wirh Wayne Eagling (08/05) English National Ballet reviews Hong Kong Ballet reviews Dutch National Ballet reviews Jeffery Taylor reviews Web version held on Ballet.co by kind permission of Jeffery Taylor and the Sunday Express Express Website

Jeffery Taylor caught up with Wayne Eagling as soon as he was appointed Director of English National Ballet...

English National Ballet, once the most popular dance company in the country, now has a reputation as the Marie Celeste of British ballet. All the physical trappings are there, the fabulous dancers, the crowd pleasing ballets, the scenery, the costumes. But today the once proud name is rarely seen on theatre marquees. For the past two years the pioneering company that for over half a century has inspired generations of dance lovers in every remote corner of the UK has apparently drifted inexorably towards oblivion.

A topsy turvy decision to axe performances to save money, an aggressive Board of Governors, weak directorship and an Arts Council run by accountants has all but drained the company’s life blood.

“We must first return to a full performance schedule,” insists Wayne Eagling, the former Royal Ballet principal dancer who last Tuesday was appointed English National Ballet’s new artistic director.

Eagling successfully ran Amsterdam–based Dutch National Ballet from 1991- 2003 and outfaced fierce opposition from the likes of Irek Mukhamedov and Maina Geilgud to land this balletic hot potato. But despite 13 years at the helm of a leading European dance company, Eagling’s racy London reputation lingers. As a Royal Ballet rabble rouser he organised the company’s first dancer’s strike in 1989. As a gossip column seeker, tall, blond and sensationally photogenic, he squired the likes of Isabel Goldsmith and Francesca Thyssen and flaunted his friendship with pop stars Queen and dancer Rudolf Nureyev. And, at a fit looking 55, Canadian born Eagling has never lost his native twang. So is Eagling, who as a child joined his sister’s ballet class “as long as I don’t have to wear tights,” the right man for the job?

“My first objective is to get money from ACE (Arts Council England) to halt the perception that ENB is on a downward spiral,” he says. What will help, and in the face of robust condemnation from press and public alike for its policy of non performance, ENB recently announced a seven week autumn tour of a brand new production of Sleeping Beauty, climaxing with 3 week season at the London Coliseum, followed extensive spring tours.. “ENB’s founding remit in 1950,” insists Eagling, “was to take classical ballet to the provinces. The company has a proud tradition in pioneering dance home and abroad. The public these days has very different expectations, than in the 50s,” he goes on, “younger people have an appetite for a harder edge, like the currently popular modernist, William Forsythe, but the world is full of little girls who want to grow up to wear tutus who need to see classics like Swan Lake.”

As for the attention seeking Board, “They must be smart to have picked me,” he observes. “I will do my best to convince the Board that the artistic policy is in the right hands and that they made the right choice.”

Eagling is a also a prolific and successful choreographer, creating many works in Holland and other companies world wide. “But,” he says, “I’ve undertaken to hold off choreographing my own work for 3 years,” he explains. “Being an Artistic Director is more than a full time job, you don’t have time for your own life. Choreography will come later.”

Eagling is now looking forward to moving his three parrots, tropical fish and Italian girlfriend, Monique, from Amsterdam and Milan to his house in West London. “I hope Monique will set up home here with me,” he adds a tad wistfully, “unless I get stabbed in the back, my contract is theoretically extendable for 11 years, until I’m 65.” But even though his feet have scarcely brushed his new office floor, Eagling already feels at home.

“One good feeling about ENB,” he remarks, “is that everybody is here in this building in Kensington, the Education department is across the corridor, finance a couple of doors down. In Amsterdam you had to leave breadcrumbs down when you went looking for anyone.

“Already there’s a warm feeling about the place for me,” he adds.

We can only pray, for the sake of the long suffering ENB, that the welcome will not overheat before Monique and the parrots have unpacked.