LBC Past Events -

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Brockway Room, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WCl

This evening's guests, Thomas Edur and Agnes Oaks, principals of English National Ballet, were welcomed by Robin Key. They have been our guests in the past and we were delighted to welcome them back again.

 They began by telling us about their recent appearance at Wembley in the memorial concert for the late Princess Diana, a patron of ENB, which was organised by her sons Prince William and Prince Harry. ENB danced the last act of Derek Deane's "Swan Lake", which had to be adapted for this unusual stage and venue and at first Agnes and Thomas were scared at having to appear on a new stage before such a huge audience (approx. 65,000 plus world-wide television), who were not the usual ballet audience. They need not have worried, because the ballet got a wonderful reception from the moment when the swans appeared and the audience stood up and screamed their enthusiasm! The dancers were afraid of slipping in front of the TV cameras and had no proper warm-up facilities, but nothing went wrong, and Agnes described the experience as quite special and the atmosphere was incredible. Thomas was worried about his first entrance (and possible wolf whistles!) and with Derek Deane's permission was allowed to replace his run-on with a spectacular manege. They both consider that this show was wonderful exposure for classical ballet to a new audience, who obviously liked what they saw.

Agnes and Thomas then told us about the back -stage organisation and the high level security involved in such a vast production. They were invited to the after-show party and after some complications about their tickets and security, they finally reached the party and met the Princes and thanked them for inviting ENB to take part.

They have just finished "Swan Lake" at the Albert Hall and enjoy dancing in this special atmosphere where they are so close to the audience and can feel and see their reactions. They went on to talk about the recent triple bill and "Melody on the Move" in particular. In Barcelona they said the audience didn't understand some of the jokes in this very English ballet, but at the end there was great applause. They also appeared in David Dawson's ballet" A Million Kisses to my Skin" to Bach, and found this was a very demanding ballet with its extreme body movements, and it was enjoyable to dance once their bodies had got used to the technique. Thomas described David Dawson's choreography as composed in phrases, not in counts, which gives the dancers more freedom of expression and emotional input

Robin then asked Agnes and Thomas about their first ballet training and how they met each other as children in Estonia. Agnes was born in a small country town and her Russian mother's dream was to be a ballerina, so she passed the dream to Agnes and took her aged 10 to audition for the Estonian ballet school in Tallinn. She was accepted, and was miserable at first and missed her family, but she settled down and got used to the hard work. She had only seen ballet on TV but had not seen any ballet on stage. She had done one year of gymnastics but had no previous dance training. Thomas also had a Russian mother (they both have Estonian fathers) who took him to see the ballet from age 4, and with his older sister he also auditioned for the national school and was accepted (though his sister wasn't). Due to a heart problem, his entry to the school was delayed for one year and unlike Agnes, he had seen a lot of ballet as his mother took him to see every company that visited Estonia.

They were trained in the traditional Soviet system, which was a tough discipline starting at the age of 10. The students felt it was an honour to be chosen for the school, but knew that they would not all be accepted for the only two companies in Estonia, so they were aware that not many of them would finally graduate. Agnes went to the Bolshoi School for one year, which added another year to her training. It was a wonderful but scary experience, because she felt she was an outsider coming from Estonia and she did not make any Russian friends, but only friends from other countries. Thomas talked about the difference in the teachers' attitudes compared to the West, as their teachers felt they owned their own pupils and there was a lot of disagreement among them, which was hard on the students. However, Agnes and Thomas continued to make good progress and two years before graduation they danced the leads in "Coppelia" with the national company, which was the start of their long partnership. They were accepted into the company and began to dance the full length classics.

They told us about the Jackson Mississippi international competition, which takes place every four years, and how this changed their lives. In 1990, after overcoming many difficulties, they entered for this competition, and for the first time they saw international dancers, which was a shock to them as they had not seen any international companies (except on video). They went through the stages of the competition winning each round right through to the final, and were the winning couple. This led to many offers from world wide company directors, and they decided to accept a contract with English National Ballet, on the advice of their teacher. Their work permit was extended each year, and they settled in London, and were married before they arrived here. Coming from a Soviet country at that time to London was a big shock to both of them, especially when they first went to Sainsbury's and saw the lavish display of food - so unlike life in Estonia at that time. They found the dancers and staff of ENB welcoming and friendly and very quickly made their first appearance with the company. Ivan Nagy had just taken over as Director, so it was a good time for their arrival and they had many opportunities to dance, if not always together as a partnership. Thomas described how their training in the same style suits them both, and made it difficult to partner dancers trained in a different school. As they have now danced together for so long, they can criticise each other and be honest and this helps their partnership improve.

Over the years they have worked hard with very few holidays, and this has taken its toll, especially with Thomas's serious injury, and they are now beginning to slow down. They have made many guest appearances around the world, which is also tiring, but at the same time traveling and seeing other companies was good experience artistically. Some companies are friendlier than others, and Thomas really enjoyed dancing in "Manon" at La Scala where he had a wonderful welcome from the dancers, and was impressed by the dancers of the Cape Town Ballet, which is not a rich company, under the direction of Veronica Paeper who has done a wonderful "Romeo and Juliet". Lately, Thomas and Agnes have started to take rehearsals as repetiteurs and have taken part in Daria Klimentova's master classes in Prague. Agnes is looking forward to teaching (though not very young children) and enjoys handing on something of her experience to the next generation. Thomas has done some choreography, and hopes to have the opportunity to try more of this, and told us about his experience in working on a joint collaboration with students of the Royal College of Music. His problem is to find the time for this, and it is difficult to create for other people when he is still a dancer doing daily class and performing.

Following questions from the audience, they explained their Estonian names, the difficulties in producing DVDs, though we hear there will be one of the Princess Diana concert and possibly one of "The Snow Queen". Their next appearance will be in "Swan Lake" at Versailles in the open air and are hoping the weather stays fine. They wondered about making their entrance by boat which is unusual - perhaps with Thomas rowing! We hope that their show at Sadlers Wells which had to be cancelled due to Thomas's injury will take place in the future. They talked about audience reactions and appreciate applause, though audiences may not appreciate the (apparent) effortlessness of classical technique. Applause is encouraging but it can come in the wrong place as Agnes described Juliet's death scene being ruined by enthusiastic screaming from the audience! The evening ended with their recollections of Dame Alicia Markova and meeting her at her 80^th birthday gala in Manchester, in the presence of Diana, Princess of Wales. They were coached by Dame Alicia and felt that they were coming face to face with dance history and the experience of her coaching was very special. They spoke about Estonia today, which is very different from the country they grew up in, and the changes in society in general which have affected Estonia as much as other countries. They are beginning to feel that London is home because they have very few family members left in Estonia, though they return there as much as possible.

The evening ended with very warm applause and the presentation of a gift to our two distinguished guests, with many thanks for a wonderful evening.