Dance Review: English National Ballet's Lest We Forget at Barbican Theatre
Tamara Rojo’s appointment as artistic director for the English National Ballet has proven to be a thrilling move as triumphantly shown with Lest We Forget - a collection of bold new commissions to mark the centenary of the First World War. Rojo has taken brave steps with this production - it is the first English National Ballet season ever at the more contemporary Barbican rather than the usual classical home that is The Coliseum. It is also the first time that contemporary dance choreographers Akram Khan and Russell Maliphant have collaborated with a ballet company. First on stage is Liam Scarlett’s No Man’s Land depicting women working in a munitions factory while uniform-clad men who could be their husbands, lovers or brothers gravely march to the war front. The rows of women with yellowed hands and gathering dust while they repetitively work shows a melancholic loneliness despite all working together in the same space. Scarlett clearly demonstrates how the roles of both genders cre