Ballet stars strip away formality

It is not the kind of performance one expects from the English National Ballet.

Now, in a bold first, the men' s magazine has dramatically upped its cultural ante by persuading some high-brow girls to strip to their scanties - three highly trained dancers from the ENB.

Soloists Joanne Clarke and Joanne Maley join corps de ballet member Jessica Saund to swap their tutus for less substantial wear in the magazine's new issue.

Dressed in lavishly embroidered basque-style attire, the young ballerinas pose in a Moulin Rougeinspired tableau and it is believed that in the accompanying article one of the dancers describes how their male colleagues hoist them into the air by gripping some rather intimate areas.

Ballet enthusiasts may be horrified by the stunt, but a spokesman for the ENB was unrepentant. "We recognise some conservative members of the audience might be surprised but that is the point - we are trying to surprise people. The dancers are top-notch athletes in their field. The three ladies featured in the article volunteered and are talented at fashion work."

The spokesman added that the novel way of attracting new audiences has been sparked by the increase in other art forms vying for bums on seats.

He said: "We are in competition with the West End stage, cinema and many others. We need to be as creative as possible and be relevant to people in 2003 and find surprising ways of presenting the company."

FHM and the English National Ballet have been in contact for three years before the photo shoot.

Last year a group of the company's male dancers posed wearing nothing but their respective national flags. And the ENB is not the only company to use its dancers in the mass media: The Royal Ballet recently allowed two of its stars to model for another men's magazine. Last year its most famous dancer, Darcey Bussell, appeared at the

launch of a motor show wearing a vampish black bodice.

The ENB's productions of Cinderella and The Nutcracker run between 10 December and 11 January at the Carling Apollo Hammersmith.