26 Oct English National Ballet Receives Generous Government Grant

We are excited to learn that the English National Ballet has been awarded a grant of £3 million ($3.9 billion) through the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund. 

Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director of English National Ballet said: “I am thrilled and so grateful that English National Ballet has been granted support through the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund, and we offer our sincere thanks to HM Treasury, the Culture Secretary, DCMS, and Arts Council England. This investment will support us as we continue to adapt, rebuild and innovate in the face of the ongoing challenges and uncertainties that the coronavirus crisis has brought to bear on our company, our work, and our ability to serve our audiences. With this grant we can ensure ENB’s survival for the immediate future, helping us to retain talent and protect as many jobs as possible, and allowing us to create, to collaborate, and to support and enrich the lives of our local, national, and global communities through our artform.”

English National Ballet is one of 35 major cultural organizations receiving the first grants between £1($1.3) and £3 ($3.9) million through the Culture Recovery Fund – with £75 million of investment announced today. This follows £334 ($434)million awarded earlier in the month to nearly 2,000 organizations, also from the Culture Recovery Fund grants program being administered by Arts Council England. Further rounds of funding in the cultural and heritage sector are due to be announced over the coming weeks.

English National Ballet has continued to create and to serve its audiences under the difficult circumstances of the coronavirus crisis. The company will soon be launching a video on demand platform, ENB at Home, which includes recorded performances and ballet-based exercise classes for people to enjoy at home, and is working to strengthen and increase the digital distribution of its work, including engagement with local communities, youth programs, Dance for Parkinson’s programs.  ENB will also be releasing a series of world premieres as part of a Digital Season and will perform to socially distanced audiences at Sadler’s Wells and the London Coliseum this Winter. The company will work to finish the creation of Creature, a new full-length ballet by choreographer Akram Khan, the premiere for which has been postponed until 2021.