English National Ballet’s second film in its digital season, Senseless Kindness is coming your way via Ballet on Demand, as part of the company’s new video platform ENB at Home.
Senseless Kindness, by world-renowned choreographer Yuri Possokhov, who works with a UK company for the first time, is based on Vasily Grossman’s great novel, Life and Fate, about a Russian family caught in the Second World War and is set to Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No1 recorded by musicians from English National Ballet Philharmonic. Filmmaker Thomas James collaborates to create this poetic, elegant film, using bold lighting and a stark, textured black and white approach.
English National Ballet’s Artistic Director, Tamara Rojo CBE, said: “This is the first time English National Ballet has embarked on a digital project of this scale and it has been amazing to see everyone pull together with such dedication and resolve, to embrace a new process of creation and collaboration. The result is five very diverse and beautiful films that are testament to the resilience and ingenuity of the arts, even in such challenging times.”
The other films in English National Ballet’s series of five original dance films (listed alongside the choreographer and filmmaker for each) are:
Take Five Blues (Stina Quagebeur and Shaun James Grant) – 23 November
Laid in Earth (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Thomas James) – 7 December
Echoes (Russell Maliphant and Michael Nunn & William Trevitt) – 4 December
Jolly Folly (Arielle Smith and Amy Becker-Burnett) – 21 December
Senseless Kindness – is available from 30 November 2020 to rent via Ballet on Demand, part of the company’s new video platform ENB at Home.
Feature photo: Emma Hawes and Francesco Gabriele Frola in Senseless Kindness a film by Thomas James with choreography by Yuri Possokhov © English National Ballet