New English Contemporary Ballet is a company with a distinctive and focused identity, performing a range of diverse choreographic styles. It explores a new, contemporary direction for classically-based dance in the UK and offers dancers seeking to extend their linear-based techniques a rich mix of exciting and diverse dance languages. In this I have drawn inspiration from the work of such great exponents of the modern European tradition as William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian and Richard Wherlock. But the personal experience of working with the late Peter Darrell, founding choreographer and artistic director at Scottish Ballet, has provided me with a model for developing a distinctive stylistic identity forged from a diverse range of influences.

Our company encourages its dancers to travel beyond the traditional boundaries of their art form and asks them to perform as artists capable of accepting a wide range of physical and stylistic challenges. This reflects my long-held view that a rigorously-trained dancer should be able to work within the technical and artistic demands of any dance genre.

My intention is to exploit fully the talent of our dancers, and to delight audiences with an exciting range of work, both accessible and challenging, at the highest artistic and technical levels. I want this company to bridge the gap between the UK and the European dance scenes, and to continue to develop as a company which nests contemporary ballet as an exciting and integral element within professional dance in this country. We plan to give audiences a fresh take on ballet which, whilst being innovative, maintains the technical integrity, quality and spirit of the great tradition from which our art derives.

Niall McMahon
Artistic Director