Reflecting on the Ballet Central 2025 tour
1 August 2025
Another year, another Ballet Central tour! This year delivered an exceptional and truly diverse programme, performed at 10 venues around the UK. The company opened in May with a preview performance at the Unicorn Theatre. The sold out auditorium was open to local schools from our home in Southwark, partner organisations and students of Central’s Associate Programme and Junior School. The evening was perfectly captured in The Times News in Pictures, featuring a beautiful photo of Tara Darlami and Archie Anderson, performing the roles of L’Étoile and Le Maître de Ballet, in Frederick Ashton’s Foyer de danse.
A highlight in this year’s ambitious programme, Foyer de danse returned to the stage after last being performed in its entirety in 1932. Its reconstruction is thanks to the many years of research by Ursula Hageli, former Ballet Mistress of The Royal Ballet. Rediscovering a forgotten jewel, Hageli’s research began in 2011 for an ‘Insight Evening’ at the Royal Opera House. Over 10 years later, Hageli was then invited to fully restage the work for Ballet Central, by The Frederick Ashton Foundation. You can read more about this remarkable restaging of history on The Frederick Ashton Foundation’s website, and also watch an interview with Ursula and some of the Ballet Central cast with Dance Europe.
Ballet Central’s premiere was part of the highly anticipated Newbury Spring Festival, which the company tours to each year. A once again sold-out auditorium got to see the show, preceded by an open rehearsal and Q&A for local schools in the Newbury area. Next on the road, the company visited Chipping Norton, a charming venue which tests the dancers ability to adapt to different staging sizes, and a great watch for those who enjoy a more intimate venue. Ballet Central for the first time visited Salisbury International Arts Festival. Salisbury provided the warmest welcome, with audience members expressing admiration for Dickson Mbi’s new work Rise, a ritualistic and moving piece that explores shared human experience. It’s grounded, earthy movement perfectly highlights the versatility of Central School of Ballet students, and Mbi’s ever-evolving and sophisticated choreography.
This year’s tour received two wonderful reviews for performances at Salisbury Playhouse, the first from LiftedLeg, who gave due credit to the casting of Foyer de danse who performed that evening: “Hannah Noh took the Markova role with much assurance and winning charisma — lucky is the company that grabs her. Joseph Burdett, taking the Ashton role, partnered well and achieved terrific elevation in his solos. But for all the fizz of the leads, it was a short section for three of the coryphées featuring blisteringly quick feet and little jumps that had me holding my breath in flabbergasted amazement — wow and bravo to them.”
The second review came from Slippedisc, focusing on the recreation of Ashton’s work and once again praising the dancers on stage: “each young woman in the corps de ballet of six became a compelling individual, vividly pointedly bringing her own character to the classroom”. The company headed to Brighton next, also for the first time, to perform at South East Dance’s shiny new building, The Dance Space. On to Guildford at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, and then Ballet Central returned to London to perform as part of the Royal Ballet & Opera’s Next Generation Festival. Alongside other vocational schools such as American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, The Royal Ballet School and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, Ballet Central had two performances in the magnificent Linbury Theatre.
Central was delighted to welcome a plethora of special guests to these performances, including further critics who wrote of the 2025 Ballet Central programme. Dance Europe’s August/September edition has just landed and readers can spot Maggie Foyer’s sparkling review on pages 38-40. A bold piece in this year’s programme, Maggie perfectly captured Thick & Tight’s new commission for this year’s tour, Keeping Up with the Apocalypse. “It’s a thoroughly enjoyable work, with a lot of theatrical invention in addition to the dance content and a generous dollop of comedy; the dancers attacked it with fierce commitment.”
Reviews also came from Bachtrack, the international online music magazine, written by Deborah Weiss. Praised for her performance of L’Étoile in Ashton’s work, Weiss wrote, “[Tara] Darlami has a very engaging personality and threw herself into the role, playing with her character with wit and vivacity. One to watch.” Further acclaim was delivered from Ballet Position’s Teresa Guerreiro – “Kudos, then, to Kate Coyne and Ben Warbis, the two remarkable former dancers now in charge of Ballet Central, for an intelligent programme that showed off their dancers’ ability and commitment and was thoroughly entertaining.”
Ballet Central then went on to perform at Bury St Edmund’s Theatre Royal and Tonbridge’s EM Forster Theatre, before making its way to the Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music. A joy for all, the final week of performances sit right at the end of Central’s summer term, alongside the Summer Showcase and Graduation ceremony. The company performed their final two shows with passion and pride, cherishing their last moments as a company. Georgina Butler’s detailed review of the final Ballet Central performance perfectly captures the dedication and professionalism that the 2025 company brought to their roles.
The Ballet Central team have been absolutely thrilled at the response to this year’s programme and would like to thank the choreographers; Dickson Mbi, Kristen McNally, Daniel Hay-Gordon and El Perry (Thick & Tight), and Ursula Hageli, for their contribution to this year’s programme. Whilst the tour may have ended, we are certain that this year’s company will be back on stage and performing in front of audiences very soon!
