English National Ballet VIP PEOPLE

Everyone craves greatness.

Everybody likes a winner.

But success isn't a one-man show.

Order! Order!

Behind every star is a team -

immensely talented, powerful in their own worlds,

but invisible to us,

until now.

These are the stories of the stars

and the teams who strive to make them shine.

This is the world of the VIP People.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

This is Flawless,

one of the best hardcore street dance crews in the world.

MUSIC: "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Tchaikovsky

And these are the dancers from the English National Ballet -

the ENB - one of the greatest touring companies of Europe.

They employ only the finest ballerinas.

Urban dance and ballet are two separate ends of the spectrum,

total.

In just six weeks, their two very different worlds,

of street dance and ballet,

will come together, for a one-off collaboration.

It's a massive challenge, not just for the dancers,

but for the VIP people behind the scenes,

who make things happen.

And, with the first night, in front of 4,000 fans...

..it's kind of appropriate that the show's called

Against Time.

Five, six, on the beat.

There'll be tears.

I don't really know what to say.

There'll be fears.

Whoops!

We could drop a girl, and we don't want that. That can't happen.

And there'll be strains.

Today, in particular, pushed me almost to my limit.

But will these two dance extremes be able pull off

the ultimate dance performance challenge?

I'm actually getting quite scared, now.

-Hello!

-It's day one, and ENB

and Flawless have come together, for the first time, to rehearse.

-You OK?

-Yes.

The female lead dancer

is English National Ballet's Alison McWhinney.

She's been dancing since the age of four,

and has appeared in 10 shows, but never before as lead.

Her partner is Leroy, of Flawless.

Leroy's a former football trainee and dance graduate, who's also

playing the starring role, for the very first time.

For the show's stars, Leroy and Alison, to succeed,

they'll need the support of all their VIP People,

from the choreographers and composer,

to the costumer supervisor,

the Flawless Crew, ENB ballerinas

and Head of PR.

Every one of them will need to give 100%

for this unique collaboration to work.

Something looks wrong. I think it's your head, it does...

-It looks awkward. Something about it doesn't quite look right.

-Right.

So, I can't tell you what that is.

Alison and I, we've got a nice duet that we're working on.

It's a love duet. A lovey dovey dovey.

That doesn't look right, either.

Can you take it there, and then go back?

Just see what that looks like.

'I'm not trained in ballet,

'but I did train in contemporary for three years.'

But, for me, I'd say the most challenging part would be

doing the partnering sequences, and stuff,

cos it's a lot to do with working with the partner,

and getting your hands in the right places,

and making sure she doesn't fall down.

# Would you make me a cup of tea

# To open my eyes in the right way? #

The area I'd like to improve is popping.

It's hard to get the muscles to react,

especially when they're so small.

Oink oink.

I think, Alison, you need to change. You do need to go de-dum...

Working closely with Alison and Leroy, are the people

who are probably under the most pressure out of everyone.

They came up with the idea of Against Time,

and need to create every step of every dance,

in every minute of this performance.

They are choreographers Jenna and Marlon.

Their job is to work closely with Leroy and Alison,

to create the dance moves for the ENB ballerinas

and the Flawless street dancers,

and push them all out of their comfort zone.

That's it, there. Shape that one.

26-year-old Jenna's been a ballerina

with the English National Ballet since she was 16,

but now, as choreographer, this is her big break.

And for Marlon, this is a huge step up

from his usual role as a street dancer.

Neither of them have ever created a 90-minute show

on this scale before.

I think to create a show in six weeks is optimistic.

Ready? Five, six, seven, eight.

One.

The first thing for this project was coming up with the script,

and the narrative, and then you need to start thinking about

creating movement, creating music, sounds, visuals.

So, as much as me and Marlon are choreographing, I suppose

we're directing the show, as well.

'The success of the show rests on Marlon and Jenna translating

'their ambitious vision into an incredible live show,

-'and they've got to do it quick.'

-I think we'll bring it down.

Right now, we are literally against time.

Sorry, I just need to check we're in sync with what's happening here,

could you do that once more?

The show will flop without the right moves,

but it's also essential that the dancers are looking good,

and that's down to the Costume Supervisor

at the English National Ballet,

Wizzy Shawyer.

Wizzy's used to dressing her ballerinas,

but, on Against Time, she needs to create 73 costumes

in total, for leads Leroy and Alison,

and for the rest of Flawless.

-We're taking a bit more, here.

-Bring it out, yeah.

Wizzy studied Art and Design at university,

and her job involves choosing, buying and dying fabrics,

organising fittings, and coordinating all the costumes.

In 15 years, she's done nearly 50 productions with the ENB.

These are some of the costumes we already have set up.

We've got the maids' costumes, for the maids and butler scene.

So the ENB girls will be wearing this,

and the boys will be wearing a kind of butler's outfit.

We've got a tiny budget for something with this many costumes in it.

We've still got more fabrics to buy

and more things to get out to the makers.

Because she's working with a small budget, hardly any helpers,

and limited time to do it all,

there's even greater pressure on Wizzy to create

fantastic costumes that'll give the production the wow factor.

Running out of time fast,

a lot to do, but...looking forward to it,

and hopefully it'll all be there by first night!

Back at rehearsals,

another challenge for the choreographers, Marlon and Jenna,

is to teach the Flawless boys how to lift and handle the girls safely.

It can take 12 years to train male ballet dancers to do this,

Flawless have a tiny fraction of that to master it.

Partnering is a very specific technique,

that boys train for years to learn, obviously.

And, these boys, they have to learn it really quickly.

It just needs to be done, so that it's safe for me,

and it's safe for them, and it looks right.

We are a boy group, as you can see,

so, now we're learning how to do lifts,

and handling them, because, obviously,

the worst-case scenario, would be that we could drop a girl.

And we don't want that, that can't happen.

Whoops!

That would have been good. If we went like that.

You know...doosh, doosh!

You don't want that happening. You don't want that.

Can't have that.

I mean, if they do drop you, if you land funny,

if you land badly on your ankle, you could break something,

-could sprain something.

-Twist an ankle.

Twist your knee.

-Jar your back.

-Yeah.

-Fall on your arm.

-Anything.

-There's a whole lot.

My ballet teacher, it ended her career, somebody dropping her.

What? I'm just saying...

A 90-minute stage show needs a lot of music,

and finding, composing, and arranging it,

is the next of our VIP People -

Musical Director, DJ Walde.

He's working closely with both the cast and the choreographers,

to craft a soundtrack which mixes Flawless's urban beats

with the ENB's classical styles, all in just six weeks.

# They can last around... #

Boom, boom, boom, cut. Yeah?

Classically trained musician and bass player, DJ Walde,

is a long time collaborator with Flawless,

but this is his first time working with ballet dancers.

There's lots of commercial music,

there's lots of classical music,

and it's a mix between the two, really.

We use the music to heighten the drama in the show.

One of DJ's tracks is for a scene in which three statues come to life,

but the music has to fit

Allan, Marlon and Paul's dance moves perfectly,

so he's mixing it live.

MUSIC THUDS MECHANICALLY

He's actually watching what we're doing,

-and creating it, to make it sound as...precise, as one.

-Yeah.

MECHANICAL THUDS

I can't really lie, it's pretty cool.

Pretty cool, but with time running out, DJ is struggling

to deliver an amazing soundtrack in time for the first show.

Meanwhile, the lead pair, Alison and Leroy

are sussing out each other's dance styles.

Leroy is really supporting me in doing the hip-hop side

of the ballet, and, hopefully, I'm helping him out.

Doing hip-hop, and learning a new style

has been very hard,

and my body doesn't want to do it,

-but I'm trying.

-Awww.

The rest of the ballet girls

have a challenge of their own to deal with.

We're putting our trainers on, now.

I think we're going to do

some drills, or something.

We never wear trainers. We wear...

these things.

They're quite different from trainers.

DUBSTEP MUSIC PLAYS

The boys really have to break it down

into, like, baby steps, at a time.

MUSIC ROBOTICALLY WHIRS

They'll show us at the beginning what we're going to do today.

Because they break it down for us,

bit by bit by bit, it's amazing -

all the girls are actually doing what they said

we were going to do, at the beginning.

-We're getting through it.

-We're getting there.

With three weeks to go,

the show is unrehearsed, still changing,

and they need to sell nearly 60,000 tickets for 33 shows.

And this is what's worrying Head of PR, Rachel Branton.

Rachel has to ensure the British public know about

the unique collaboration

between Flawless and the English National Ballet,

and that they want to buy tickets for the 33-date tour.

I shall e-mail you, as well. OK, thanks, bye.

Rachel studied music at uni,

and has been with the ENB for seven years.

She's good at writing and communication, and started out

as a marketing assistant,

before landing her current job in PR.

Publicity comes in all sorts of different forms.

You've got print media, so newspapers, television,

and then there's the radio.

Our budget's not huge,

so we can't afford things like side of buses,

and huge billboards.

You might think, "Why don't you just get a big billboard

"outside Waterloo station?"

Well, it's very, very expensive. We can't afford that.

So we have to become more creative.

Hi, Sara, it's Rachel.

Just wondering if you have a technical schedule yet

for Flawless.

The dancers' hard work will have been a complete waste of time

if no-one turns up for the tour, so the pressure's on Rachel,

to get the word out about the show.

At this stage, ticket sales could be better.

Put it that way, they could be better.

A week later, and luck seems to be on Rachel's side.

After loads of e-mailing and phone bashing, she's pulled off

a massive publicity coup,

managing to get a big London glossy magazine

to run a colour feature about the tour.

It'll be three pages in the magazine,

and alongside it, there'll be an interview as well.

It's basically a big feature about the show, to promote it,

which is great. I'm very excited.

The light, right here, that will be brought up. Don't worry.

All the detail's there.

No, it's fine, honestly.

Now!

Doing this is such a good cause, cos they'll just help, you know...

help the sales and get the awareness out there,

so everyone knows about this tour.

And Nathan is also giving up his body for the cause,

and giving it some extra shine.

I have to get some oiling. Oh, great.

It's important, because the light

needs to catch the body, right?

Six, seven, eight, one!

Everyone seems happy, but will the shots be enough

to get those vital bums on seats?

With just three weeks to go,

all the VIP People are battling hard,

to deliver the music, costumes, choreography and publicity.

Coming up, Jenna and Marlon get to star on national telly.

From the outside, looking in, it looks like it might be easy.

And costume designer, Wizzy, has a major problem on first night.

They've forgot to book the dressers.

-Ah!

-That bit might be a problem but we won't worry.

Wizzy has headed to rehearsals for the crucial first fitting.

I love it.

I feel like Neo from The Matrix right now.

I'm going to have a lot of fun with this jacket onstage.

I feel a sense of authority.

Wizzy is disappointed to discover that several of the outfits still

need more work, and she has little time now to sort out the problems.

We thought we'd fitted and bought all the varsity jackets for the boys,

and then today they decided one of them was too tight,

so we've got to try and send that back and get one in the right size,

when we'd labelled it up and thought we were there.

A few little challenges like that.

Just when you think you've got something sorted

and then you find a problem and need to change something.

While Wizzy has new worries to deal with,

back in Kensington, Rachel heads out to the news stands

to see if her photo-shoot has made it into the magazine.

I hope it's in there!

Wow! That's a very beautiful photo.

I feel really, really happy. It's exactly what I would have hoped.

Hopefully people will see it and book some tickets.

With just 11 days to go,

the dancers head to a bigger rehearsal space in Kent.

On the journey there, choreographer Jenna reveals that she's really

feeling the pressure with the clock ticking down to the first show.

I think the closer we get, the more problems you get.

We get into the theatre, some of the set won't work,

the lighting cues won't be on time

and hat is part of it as well,

but it's nerve wracking.

With so little time left before the first night,

the pressure is starting to get to the choreographers.

Five, six, seven, eight.

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS

Ohhh!

Gave that note, no-one's listening.

One, two, three, four. Yes, you need to be here by four.

Sometimes you're a bit late.

I think that's what throws it. Once more.

MUSIC: "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff

Everyone's looking happy with the book. It's not meant to be happy.

It's meant to be more shocking. Let's pass the message on anyway.

Don't ever call me love.

Can we try and keep on centre? It's a bit weird, but... Happy?

And then we exit.

-They need to retain what we did. Or I'll kill someone.

-Yeah!

If you pass that note directly on, I will literally kill someone.

So you've gone, you've flipped back, you've come forward.

But at least Alison and Leroy's lead partnership

is showing signs of improvement.

We're less than two weeks away now so it feels very close,

feels very...

I'm always thinking about something about it,

I can't get my mind off it.

Four, five, six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five.

It's nice to see she's learned so much and she's developed so much.

It's good of you to say so, Leroy, but what about her street cred?

Yeah, she's got a bit of street cred now.

She's getting there, she's getting there.

Much better than when I first met you.

It looked a little bit sloppy then and didn't read quite so well.

Eight, nine, ten.

I was on the wrong count though, still.

ALL LAUGH

-Sometimes our position is a little bit difficult, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's great, the connections

that Flawless and the English National Ballet have made.

I suppose we have to be the ones sending the discipline sometimes

and stop the partying.

-It feels... It's a hard position to be in.

-It's tricky.

The time that we have for the show is pretty tight.

-A show like this that we are trying to create is...

-In six weeks.

In six weeks, it's very tight, yeah.

So, Gem, you should be on the crack, come further back.

Back in London, Head of Costume Wizzy is dealing with a new problem.

Some of the clothes that have been designed for the boys

aren't suitable for their highly energetic performances.

The challenges we're facing are they are not really giving enough where they need to,

because obviously these guys have got very extensive movements

they've got to achieve.

HIP HOP MUSIC PLAYS

Kind of doing incredible body popping

and head spins and all sorts of incredible things.

And they just need to have full flexibility of movement.

There's still a lot to be done.

I was hoping we'd be a little bit further on by now than we are.

Struggling to meet the deadline to get one track in particular finished for the show,

DJ has taken his work home with him.

This is one of those tracks that it's taking more time than you thought it would take.

DJ wants every track to be perfect and hates a "make do"

but this track is complex, so he's adding layers,

playing with the tempo and refining his beats on the computer

to try and crack it.

It's trying to create a track which will reveal the statues as they come to life

and making a track that they can also dance to as statues.

With tickets sales still disappointing and time running out,

PR girl Rachel has another success

when she books Marlon and Jenna onto Channel 4 News

and on BBC's Breakfast programme to promote Against Time.

It's been literally a collaboration,

so you wouldn't see Flawless on one side

and English National Ballet on the other,

we literally fuse the styles together.

I thought my heart was going to come out of my chest.

Yeah, that was really scary.

Yeah, one of them is enough, thanks.

Let's get back to the dress rehearsal!

Job done, but will it help with sales?

-CHRIS MOYLES: Hi, there. It's...

-Friday.

Sing it, kids!

LITTLE KID SINGS: # International Radio One. #

MUSIC: Down With The Trumpets by Rizzle Kicks

CHRIS MOYLES: Rizzle Kicks, the song number one today.

It's the day of the first show

and the dancers arrive at the venue, London's Hammersmith Apollo.

-Hello.

-It's massive, isn't it, at the front?

There's a lot of seats to fill.

# Yo, you might hear me make a racket like Wilson

# Cos I love summer No Rachel Bilson, yes... #

The whole kind of realisation's setting in.

-Yeah.

-That this is actually happening.

# We're bangin'

# Chase her boyfriend Let's have him... #

I'm really excited. I can't even put it into words right now.

I've got butterflies.

It's been hard, but, yeah, the day has come.

# ..My trainers Um, I know a few guys hate us

# They're as compelling as Neighbours... #

It's feeling very real now.

It's lovely to get on stage and see the auditorium.

Yeah, scared but excited.

ALARM BELL RINGS

The last-minute television appearances

and the glossy magazine article organised by Head of PR Rachel

have paid off and given a boost to ticket sales,

so the dancers will perform to a packed house tonight.

We've seen a real jump in sales

following the Channel 4 News and BBC Breakfast.

Two really meaty national news stories.

I think at least 500 seats have been sold.

You can't say it's just publicity,

but I think it has made a big difference.

Well, that's the tickets sorted,

but with just hours to go before the curtain goes up,

costume supervisor Wizzy discovers that nobody has been booked

to help the dancers switch outfits during the show.

We've got no dressers, they forgot to book the dressers.

So it's a little bit nerve wracking but I'm hoping that...

My girls have stepped in to help out and I'm sure it'll be fine.

But we'll just have to see how it goes.

It's just a bit scary to not be able to do a dry run

before opening night, that's all.

Today in particular has pushed me almost to my limit.

It's almost time for the show to begin

and the cast are trying hard to keep the last-minute nerves at bay.

Every dancer is definitely soldiering through right now.

So you've got that pressure.

Everyone wants the make the show the best it can be.

I think the most exciting part is when the curtain goes up.

Definitely the most excitement and the most nervous, everything.

I want to come out. I just want to get on stage now and just do it.

For Alison and Leroy, six weeks of hard work

and the support of their VIP People,

from the ENB and Flawless dancers to the choreographers,

the musical director, the costume supervisor and the Head of PR,

all comes down to this...

Show time!

MUSIC PLAYS

It's amazing because we're not used to that sort of audience,

cheering while you're dancing.

Created on a tight budget, Wizzy's collection of amazing costumes

really impresses the crowd.

I've been wanting to burst into tears all day

and I want to burst into tears.

But, no, really pleased.

DJ's music score, blends perfectly

with Marlon and Jenna's inventive choreography.

I feel relief, joy, exhaustion...

# Maybe I'm just in love when you wake me... #

So far the show has gone down a storm with the audience

but what will they make of Alison and Leroy's romantic pairing?

# Maybe I'm just in love when you wake me up. #

They've come a long way since their nervous beginnings,

just six weeks ago, but through dedication, hard graft

and the support of their VIP People,

Alison and Leroy pull off brilliant performances.

There was a lot of emotions, happiness...

just being really overwhelmed, really.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

All the hard work we've put into it, since the beginning,

it's all paid off.

Oh... I don't really know what to say.

-We did it. We did it.

-I know, it was...

Magical. Yeah, yeah.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.