2nd Year students Harry and Maria on reuniting with choreographer Jessica Lang for our 2026 Summer Performances
When Artistic Director Iain Mackay announced the 2026 Summer Performance programme early in the autumn term, 2nd Year students Harry and Maria were thrilled to learn that they would continue working with acclaimed international choreographer Jessica Lang. Jessica worked with the pair and their classmates last year, when she created Sweet Morning Blooms for our 2025 Summer Performances.
‘Ms Lang always brings a very warm atmosphere into the studio,’ Harry said. ‘She’s full of great wisdom. She’s worked with lots of great dancers and companies, and she always has great stories to tell us. She brings a lot of inspiration and motivation to us in the studio. It’s always enjoyable to work with Ms Lang.’
Maria added, ‘I was very excited because I look up to her. I like her choreography, and I like the way that she choreographs. We have the opportunity to choreograph in the School with the Ninette de Valois Choreographic Programme, and seeing her working is very helpful. I was not expecting her to come again, and we were so happy because that means that she liked working with us.’
Left: Harry and Maria in Sweet Morning Blooms; right: choreographer Jessica Lang
Sweet Morning Blooms
Harry and Maria performed featured roles in Sweet Morning Blooms, an unexpected opportunity as both were recovering from injuries when she first arrived in 2024.
‘I was coming back from a partial ACL tear in my knee and Maria from a stress fracture in her metatarsal,’ Harry shared. ‘We were dancing, but it was very limited. Ms Lang very kindly decided that she would still implement us into the piece. We worked through the narrative and guided the story of the beautiful, quite romantic classicism of the choreography. As we slowly built back up to being able to do more throughout our injury rehabilitation process, she added more movement. It was a very beautiful experience.’
‘I was not expecting to even be in the piece,’ Maria said. ‘At the beginning, we couldn’t do so much, so she added just a walk. Then, she changed the choreography while we progressed through our injuries, and that was very nice. But I think that the most challenging thing in those rehearsals was the connection that Harry and I had to explore because we were just walking. That was still hard because we had to make eye contact. The work that we were doing was less technical and more through the expression.’
Harry reflected on this detail-oriented process. ‘Even through simple movements, there was so much we worked through alongside our teachers. Last year, Ms Nicola Tranah worked with me a lot on the hands and how the details are what tell the story. I felt like I was being treated like an artist.’
Harry and Maria performing the simple details at the beginning of Sweet Morning Blooms at Opera Holland Park
New work featuring Dame Ninette de Valois’ poetry
Lang’s new work will feature three of our Founder Dame Ninette de Valois’ poems: I Love Pubs, The Contented Ghost and Said the Child…. Each will be read and recorded respectively by alumni Dame Monica Mason (former Principal and Director of The Royal Ballet), Dame Darcey Bussell (former Principal at The Royal Ballet and President of the Royal Academy of Dance) and Kevin O’Hare CBE (Director of The Royal Ballet).
In the meantime, Jessica asked Harry to record the poems for rehearsals. ‘The way he talks and the sensitivity in his voice is so warm and poetic, so I thought, oh, have him read them and let’s record them. We use his recordings as a placeholder, and he’s done so well with it. We have been creating to his voice.’
Harry is also a writer and felt inspired by Madam’s multifaceted artistry. ‘I was really happy to be asked because I write often myself, so I really enjoyed reading them. I wasn’t aware that Madam was a writer as well, so it was really nice to think about the way that she would have written them and intended them to be spoken. It was really fun, but it was a bit strange hearing my own voice in the studio for a month.’
During the rehearsals, Jessica emphasised that she wanted the dancers to expand their creative outlets to add texture and depth to their performance, for the Summer Performances and beyond. This idea resonated with Harry. ‘All arts go hand in hand. It’s all the same driving force, all the same motivation, just through a different device. They are all intertwined: poetry, music, dance, everything. It’s all combined via the same motivation to push art forward.’
Maria found the experience fresh and inspiring. ‘I have never danced in a piece with poetry, but I loved it. Poetry is imagery. It is without a song, so it allows us to go deeper. Rather than worrying about a shape because the music asks for it, it is about expressing the words through our bodies, and I find that beautiful. Sometimes, as dancers, we struggle to think about what we are actually feeling. By working with poetry, we put the words into our bodies, and it is so great to experience that emotional arc.’
Of the three poems he read, Harry’s favourite was ‘I Love Pubs’ for how it humanised Dame Ninette. ‘It is fairly deceiving when you first see the title, but actually, the poem itself is very touching, and it’s extremely human. It’s great to see the human side of someone who is spoken about so much. You see Madam on the amazing pedestal that she has created over time, but this is more personal, the idea of Ninette de Valois in a pub. It puts you in there with her, so it’s a more personal view of how she lived her life, what she liked to do and how observant she was.’
Left: Maria performing Human by Yannick Lebrun; right: Harry performing Death in Venice by John Neumeier
Compared to last year’s romantic, classical choreography, Harry and Maria shared that this year’s piece is more contemporary and dynamic as the poems lead into Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 ‘Spring’: Adagio molto espressivo.
Both students have enjoyed being given another opportunity to work with such a renowned choreographer.
‘It was really nice to see Ms Lang again,’ said Harry. ‘She’s very clear on how she’s always learning herself, and she always touches on what she’s learned from her mentors. She imparted some lessons on us about how it works when a choreographer comes into a company, the time frame, the amount of dancing and much more. What I’ve learned from her the most is the importance of mentorship, trust and enjoying the process.’
Maria added, ‘What I learned from her was that she took her time, because she was testing a lot of ideas. I remember there was one day when she said, ‘No, let’s stop. Let’s take a step back. I’m not quite sure about this part.’ She wanted to breathe through it and not keep repeating or rushing something to make it work. That’s something that is good for us as dancers as well, because if the choreographer feels rushed, we feel kind of insecure, but there is no need to be rushed. I really respect that.’
Watch Jessica’s new work with Harry, Maria and their 2nd Year peers at our 2026 Summer Performances at Opera Holland Park from 8-11 July. Book your tickets here.
