by When Aaron Watkin was a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada in the late 1980s, he sometimes found himself dreading it. “I could feel my body with anxiety,” he tells me. “I had to tell myself, your solo is only 60 seconds long and then you can get off the stage. I think sometimes, if I had a little more support, I might feel differently.”
Watkin and I met at the sleek new east London offices of English National Ballet where he has been artistic director since September following Tamara Rojo’s departure in 2022 after ten years at the helm. Rojo, who is now the artistic director of San Francisco Ballet, has left a formidable legacy: under his visionary leadership, the ENB transformed itself into a European powerhouse with a revolutionary treasure at its core.
But her reign was marred by unfounded bullying claims, and the ballet world is currently reeling from a series of sexual abuse allegations and eating disorder and mental health exposés that exposed the ugly heart of this most beautiful of art forms. Add to that a challenging financial climate, a rapidly changing cultural landscape and the persistent misconception that ballet is an exclusive art form, and Watkin, 54, has a formidable task ahead. “ENB is in great shape,” he says in his drawing. Canadian light. “But we are definitely working hard to change attitudes.”
Earlier this week, Watkin announced the company’s 75th anniversary program including a new production of The Nutcracker, the company’s first in 13 years (ENB’s current iteration of this beautiful Christmas staple was seen by 75,000 on staged in London at the Coliseum last year. alone). It is a powerful statement of intent, affirming ENB’s commitment to the classics while recognizing that a ballet composed in 1892 can speak anew to a modern audience. What can that audience expect? “A sugar plum fairy for one thing [the fairy doesn’t appear in the ENB’s current version],” says Watkin. “Arielle Smith, nominated by Oliver, is co-choreographer and will bring fresh theatrical performances to the Prologue and Act One. But we are also rethinking the role of Clara. She’s not just a cute little girl following everyone else.”
There will also be a world premiere of a new William Forsythe program – a project close to Watkin’s heart since he worked extensively with Forsythe throughout his life, first on Forsythe’s invitation as a principal dancer at Ballett Frankfurt and, later, arranging some of his. ballet with different companies around the world. He has also revived Akram Khan’s impressionistic reworking of Giselle which relocates the 1841 original to a modern immigrant community and next year he will tour a revival of Mary Skeaping’s traditional 1971 production.
Watkins is not interested in debunking the classics simply because they may represent outdated values or storylines. “You can’t go forward if you don’t know where you’ve been,” he says. “It’s just about getting rid of something [too] easy. Instead you look at how you can reinterpret them to better reflect them. There is beauty in both versions of Giselle. You don’t have to pick.”
However, his main commitment is to diversity. A word that risks being meaningless, but although Watkin can sometimes sound like he’s stuck with management manuals, he has worked extensively with modern and classic companies (before coming to ENB he was artistic director at Dresden where he radically modernized the repertoire) and passionately believes that the latter can renew the latter when it comes to body shape. “I’m not looking for a harmonious look where everyone looks the same,” he says. “I’m interested in individuals and personality, although of course they need to have the physicality that a dancer needs.” His ethos of inclusivity extends naturally to trans and non-binary dancers. “I haven’t come across a trans or non-binary dancer yet but if I did, I would sit down with them at ENB and discuss how we could best support them.”
But he admits that it will be difficult to change certain attitudes. The influence of George Balanchine for example, the New York City Ballet choreographer who preferred his female ballet dancers to be leggy, thin and preferably hungry, is still deeply embedded in the ballet psyche. “Many people in culture have grown up with a certain physical ideal. The traditional minded are attached to the idea that certain characters must be innocent little blondes. But not every Giselle has to be fragile and small. It’s not just the little women who have their hearts broken.”
It is as strong as the classical ballet corps, which traditionally promotes a uniform body aesthetic. “It’s a case of being inventive. If I were doing a classic version of Swan Lake, I would make sure that the smallest girls were at the front and that the line went up naturally to the top. We hope that we will succeed in having so much diversity on stage, that different shapes will not stand out but will all blend together.”
The prevalence of eating disorders in British ballet schools as revealed in a Panorama investigation last September did not surprise him. “When I was younger, these things weren’t discussed as much,” he says. “There hasn’t been much emphasis on the mental and physical support a dancer needs.” He points out that BCE now has systems in place, as do ballet companies around the world, to ensure dancers have access to help. So if a dancer was living on a packet of crisps for lunch, would he know about it? “Yes, but at ENB we have an artistic mentor with a background in dance and psychology who works privately with dancers to help them manage anxiety and body confidence.”
What about bullying? Did he meet him? “Historically companies have been directed from the top down. My teachers would tell me, ‘that’s how it is, shut your mouth and do the degree’. But you can’t say that to a young dancer anymore because they’ll say ‘I don’t have to do that’. You have to get today’s dancers on board in a way that they will work together. In my day art directors didn’t have to think outside the lines. Now, you have to keep up with the world and evolve with the generations.”
Of course, it is vital that those new generations believe that ballet belongs to them in the first place. We take a look around ENB’s sparkling new office spaces, ambitiously located in Stratford, a rather deprived area of east London rarely frequented by the culturati. “I’m determined to grow our presence here,” says Watkin. “Those who think ballet is elitist and boring, they are not going to come to us at the Coliseum. So we have to go to them.”
Watkin fell into ballet almost by accident, after attending tap dancing lessons with his sister on Vancouver Island when he was 12. A teacher noticed his talent and he was soon studying at the National Ballet School of Canada in Toronto, at come home once a year because of his. the parents were unable to travel. “I was terribly homesick but I’m forever grateful to my mum for asking me to stick it out. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t be here today.”
For more information on English National Ballet’s new season, visit ballet.org.uk
