Love among the leotards as ballet company's stars find romance on stage

Love match: English national ballet dancers Kerry Birkett and Zhanat Atymtayev
12 April 2012

Workplace romances may be common - but the English National Ballet is setting records as love blossoms among the leotards.

Several top dancers have recently found romance on the stage.

Today Kerry Birkett, 28, and Khazak dancer Zhanat Atymtayev, 35, revealed they have become the latest to experience what is being dubbed the "ENB effect". They have become engaged after collaborating on shows from Swan Lake to the Hollywood-inspired Strictly Gershwin.

Speaking to the Standard, Birkett described the moment she met her husband-to-be: "For me, it was, oh my God, this guy is so talented."

He added: "And for me it was immediate. She was beautiful."

The couple met at the St Petersburg State Ballet and after spending so much time together at the ENB over the past five years will marry next August - after much juggling of schedules.

The ENB's Austrian first soloist Fabian Reimair is married to senior principal Fernanda Oliveira, from Brazil, and the couple had their first baby, Liam, last year.

British dancer James Streeter wed Japanese star Erina Takahashi last month. And colleague Juan Rodriguez, a junior soloist, is engaged to fellow Spaniard Adele Ramirez.

Birkett thinks the demands of the performing schedule and touring prompt the matches, saying it would make life "really quite complicated" if they did not work together.

A ENB spokeswoman acknowledged the boom in off-stage romance. "It is a natural thing - lots of time spent together, like-minded crazy lives."

The company has also played a small but important role in Birkett and Atymtayev's wedding, thanks to a fundraiser held at the Dorchester Hotel this year. Birkett was seated at a table where a mystery Russian oligarch was generously bidding in an auction. She was making her own offer for another lot - a wedding package including dress, rings, make-up and luggage.

"I had a limit, £3,000, and it went very quickly. It was for the wedding dress really. There was no way I could afford to spend any more," she said.

But with minutes to go, the man trumped all previous offers, told Birkett the lot was hers - and left. "It was such a generous thing to do," the ballerina said. "He had already spent a ridiculous amount of money." Details of the dress, by Stewart Parvin, remain a secret although one thing is certain - a ballerina bride is not keen on frills. "When you put those massive dresses on, it feels like work," she said.

Birkett is getting the chance to practise her big day early, after been chosen by the company to model designer dresses at a wedding show at the Millennium Hotel London in Mayfair next month. "It will be strange," she added.

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