English National Ballet
classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin
English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish Ballet, it is one of the five major ballet companies in Great Britain. English National Ballet is one of the foremost touring companies in Europe, performing in theatres throughout the UK as well as conducting international tours and performing at special events.
The company employs approximately 67 dancers and a symphony orchestra, the English National Ballet Philharmonic. In 1984, Peter Schaufuss became director and changed the name to English National Ballet and founded the school English National Ballet School, which is independent from the ballet company but joining the company premises in the new building. The company regularly performs seasons at the London Coliseum and has been noted for specially staged performances at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2014 English National Ballet became an Associate Company of Sadler's Wells.
History
English National Ballet was founded in 1950 as Gala Performances of Ballet by the British dance couple, Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin. The Company later adopted the name Festival Ballet, then London Festival Ballet, and in June 1989, English National Ballet.
Markova and Dolin were leading stars of the Ballets Russes, one of the most influential ballet companies of the 20th century.
The public source identifies “English National Ballet” as classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around English, National and Ballet.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1342859. VIAF identifies the subject as 156560837. The Library of Congress control number is no2001048673. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1984, 2014, 1950 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “English National Ballet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.