New director of dance for English National Ballet School

Posted on May 3, 2012

English National Ballet School has announced that Samira Saidi will take up the post of director of Dance.

Following a career that encompassed 20 years as a dancer with Birmingham Royal Ballet, and then as a tutor at Elmhurst School for Dance, Saidi has also taught at both The Royal Ballet School’s Junior and Senior Associate programmes, and most recently conceived and managed Elmhurst’s satellite Associate Programme which is run throughout the UK.

In a press release announcing her appointment, Saidi said, “Over 30 years of experience comprising both performance and dance education has instilled within me the importance and value of treasuring, retaining and passing on the history and honesty of the profession, and I am now greatly looking forward to taking up my new role… at English National Ballet School.”

Photograph: courtesy of John Hackney

Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray is editor of Dancing Times. He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. For 16 years he was a member of the curatorial department of the Theatre Museum, London, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty. He has also contributed to the Financial Times, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005.