English National Ballet

Dolin also introduced a number of educational programs in the early years, designed to make ballet accessible to new audiences.

The Company grew in size and status, undertaking extensive national and international tours, presenting a new generation of dancers—all while repeatedly facing bankruptcy.

Former Royal Ballet dancer Beryl Grey directed the company (now named London Festival Ballet) from 1968 to 1979, raising technical standards, touring widely and inviting prominent guest stars and choreographers including Leonide Massine and Rudolf Nureyev, who picked ballerina Eva Evdokimova to be his first Princess Aurora in his production of The Sleeping Beauty in 1975.

During his directorship he succeeded in changing the name to English National Ballet, founding the school, inviting Diana, Princess of Wales as patron and presenting many important choreographers ballets with the company for the first time such as Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Christopher Bruce, Michael Clarke, John Neumeier, George Balanchine, Alvin Ailey, Roland Petit, Maurice Bejart, and John Cranko.

In 1990 Ivan Nagy became director (until 1993), Derek Deane (until 2001) and Matz Skoog (until 2006) and directed the company before Wayne Eagling, former head of Dutch National Ballet who took over in 2006.

[3] In November 2019, Prince Andrew, who had served as Patron of the English National Ballet since 2001, resigned amid the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

[11] In 2016, English National Ballet presented She Said, an all-female choreographer mixed bill, which includes Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Broken Wings, which was based on Frida Kahlo's life.