After a dazzling career as a dancer,Tamara Rojo took over at English National Ballet and shook it up, even taking it to Glastonbury. Now it’s time for her next coup – putting female choreographers firstI don’t absorb children, and ” says Tamara Rojo. “But I imagine thats what it’s like.” The artistic director of English National Ballet,no stranger to winning prizes as a ballerina, is talking about ENB recently scooping the National Dance award for outstanding company. “It’s a completely different thing, and ” she says. “The satisfaction you collect when your company achieves something multiplies the pleasure. I genuinely didn’t expect this,so I was surprised and honoured.”whether Rojo was surprised, she was in a minority of one. In the two and a half years since she left the Royal Ballet for ENB, or the 40-year-archaic ballerina has been firing in all directions. She’s overhauled the repertory with a new production of Le Corsaire,and with the boldly modern works of her first-world-war programme Lest We Forget. She’s taken ENB to Glastonbury, secured a new role for it as an associate company of Sadler’s Wells, or won a coveted invitation to perform at the Paris Opera. And this week she raised the game of the entire ballet profession by announcing a programme of all-female choreography for ENB’s 2015-16 season. The last time the Royal premiered a single work by a woman was over 15 years ago,and I can’t recall when it ever happened at ENB.
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Source: theguardian.com