Tamara Rojo is the Canadian born Spanish ballet dancer who is the Artistic Director of the English National Ballet (ENB), as well as its Lead Principal. The Telegraph calls her “one of the greatest ballerinas alive today” she combines “talent, technique, brains, beauty and artistic ambition and interpretive brilliance” writes Mark Monahan. For more than a decade she was the star dancer at the Royal Ballet and still makes guest appearances.

Her latest project is Lest We Forget, a compelling quartet of strongly-styled pieces inspired by the centenary of The Great War, marking ENB’s debut at the Barbican.

Critics agree, it’s Tamara’s boldest move since she became director, and the most exciting. She commissioned three big name and radically different choreographers to create their first works for the ENB. Liam Scarlett’s No Man’s Land is about loss and longing, danced to the music of Liszt. Russell Maliphant’s Second Breath follows the men at the front and the mounting numbers of dead and Akram Khan’s Dust explores the impact of war on women and the changes it brings. Tamara and Akram perform a duet, which I sketch.

The Independent called it “moving and ambitious… dancing full of pain and power.” Tamara also featured in the new classy black and white Lexus ‘Poise’ commercial, which I’ve also included in the sketch.

Lest We Forget continues until Saturday 12 April 2014.