Book tickets: English National Ballet’s Song of the Earth & La Sylphide at the Palace Theatre

English National Ballet’s new double bill, Song of the Earth and La Sylphide, premieres at the Palace Theatre this October. Kenneth MacMillan’s masterpiece, Song of the Earth, was first performed in 1965 and broke new ground in choreography. The performance combines dance with music and poetry, capturing the fragility of life, and its constant renewal. Three central figures portray the bittersweet reality of love, loss, and mortality: a Woman, a Man and an enigmatic Messenger. The result is a timeless narrative, inspired by Mahler’s song cycle Das Lied von der Erde. The performance is paired August Bournonville’s classic Romantic ballet La Sylphide. This tale of infatuation has been recreated by Frank Anderson and Eva Kloborg. Director of ENB, Tamara Rojo, notes that this is the first time that the company has performed Song of the Earth and Frank Andersen’s recreation of August Bournonville’s original La Sylphide, describing the former as a “powerful ballet” which “brings many different traditions, histories, and cultures together.” Contrastingly, La Sylphide has been a part of the company’s history almost from the beginning, and she describes it as “a beautiful jewel of the history of ballet”. This devotedly authentic re-version keeps the legacy of the classic from 1836 alive. The English National Ballet’s performance of Song of the Earth coincides with the 25th anniversary of Kenneth MacMillan’s death, and Wednesday 11 October is the UK premiere of the ENB’s National Tour of the work. An absolute must for ballet fans, the tour continues to Milton Keynes and London after a four-night Manchester run.

Wed 11 – Sat 14 Oct, Palace Theatre, 97 Oxford Street, Manchester M1 6FT. Tel: 0844 871 3019, 7.30pm (& 2pm Thu & 2.30pm Sat), from £12, www.ballet.org.uk

Image: Rina Kanehara rehearsing La Sylphide by Laurent Liotardo