Ballet.co ENB Page

She's smaller than many of the dancers and half the size of the average stage hand, but as the stage manager for English National Ballet, Annie Lincoln has as tough as job as any of them. In between her other numerous tasks, she took time to walk ballet.co through a typical Saturday on tour.

She likes Saturday because class starts half an hour later at 11.30.Despite the "late" start to her 12 hour day, she arrives at the theatre by 11.00,prepares the stage for class with heaters and also provides a bucket of ice in case of injury. Unfortunately even the ballet world cannot escape administration so during class she completes the show report from the previous evening.

Despite a punishing schedule on the busiest day of the week, Annie has always very generously given her time to taking people on backstage tours after class. For most this is a first experience of theatre life and is now a very popular and regular ENB Association event. The fascinating tour includes a visit to wardrobe to see the costumes and the box of dancers' shoes plus - the children's favourite - a chance to stand on the conductor's rostrum. However it is not just the children who finish the tour with wonder in their eyes and (sore feet from climbing the 5 flights of stairs at Liverpool).

After a quick lunch she announces the half-hour call for the matinee which marks the time that she is in total charge. She is then the lady in black who most definitely must be obeyed by all backstage. However, often the only time that Annie is seen out front is when she has to make an announcement about a late cast change just before the show begins. She may be small and slight but she has a voice projection that can be heard without a microphone from the back of a large theatre. She has the most beautiful diction that did not go unnoticed by a Liverpudlian who remarked 'God what a gorgeous voice, is she part of the show or what?'

The most awesome aspect of her job is that once Annie has said "GO" the show goes on and she has to cope with any eventuality. Potential disasters are a better description. These run from sticking scenery in The Nutcracker to providing an improvising jester in Swan Lake, after a dancer injured himself on stage. She runs the show from her rostrum in a corner of the stage with an annotated score of the show, cueing house lights, curtains (tabs), scene movements and changes, together with all the detailed lighting choreography that takes place. She has to multi- task simultaneously yet with the most intense concentration: her picture makes it look like being in the control room of NASA and bringing down the space shuttle.

The end of the evening show marks the time when the crew have to prepare to pack everything up and move to the next theatre. The dancers may be free to go down the pub, or back home to bed, but there's no rest backstage. 'Get out' is the process in which all the scenery and lighting is carefully dismantled and packed up in several trucks, it finishes with the 'idiot check' at about 4.30 am Sunday morning to ensure that nothing is left behind.

Annie will sleep while her assistant oversees the packing process and will drive to the next venue at about 5.00am. She handles every aspect of the arrival at the new venue or the 'In'. One of her first tasks at the new theatre is to allocate the dressing rooms. This has to be handled with the utmost sensitivity, because although it is supposedly done on the basis of seniority and smokers or non-smokers she has to take the emotional climate tactfully into account.

Training and Career
Although she never wanted to perform, Annie studied Drama at Loughborough University. It was there that 'Fate' was kind to the ballet world: she came into contact with an ex-professional theatre technician who fuelled her interest in the technical aspects of the theatre and she got her first chance to be a stage manager. Her 'chance' came in her second year when she took 4 shows to the Edinburgh Fringe festival as a last-minute replacement. She had an insatiable appetite and awesome ability for technical theatre and after graduation and a two-year stay at Great Eastern Stage group she accepted a temporary position with London Festival Ballet in 1983 and is still there.

During her career she has obviously seen some sights but, disappointingly the most scandalous she can be persuaded to repeat is the story of a certain guest artiste who did a beautiful double tour and landed on his knee - unfortunately his wig imitated him and fell beside him.

Annie claims not to dance herself, but despite this, she's been observed in an adult class executing a wonderful high cabriole - one for the ENB end of tour cabaret I think. But in the absence of getting her on stage, if a slight, harassed looking woman dressed in black rushes past you, please make way, it's probably Annie with twenty jobs to do before curtain up.