… GO: Which is the favourite ballet character you interpreted? NM: I think it was Marie-Antoinette, a ballet created by Patrick de Bana in Vienna. I loved interpreting it because Patrick gave me so much freedom in designing the role and in my performance …

… Natascha Mair, principal dancer, is gearing up for a very different Nutcracker: from 20 until 30 December 2023, her fans will be able to watch her in Chicago in Sugar Hill, a show choreographed to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s The Nutcracker Suite, a jazz interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. …

.....  Au-delà d'une très belle technique assurée, Natascha Mair danse avec son âme. Il y a toujours chez elle une grande honnêteté, dans ses gestes et ses intentions, une sensibilité toujours juste, une fragilité assumée qui va droit au coeur. Son travail de bras est soigné, il se fait poétique et d'une grande musicalité. Dans cette veine du conte, Natascha Mair est véritablement tournée vers l'oiseau dans les actes blancs, accentuant par ses bras et son haut du corps toujours mouvant cette idée de malédiction, de femme-oiseau un peu surnaturelle. ......

..... Sleeping Beauty Act III brought us the grand pas de deux with the glorious Vadim Muntagirov who has matured into a very fine artist indeed, here partnering a rock solid Natascha Mair. Muntagirov produced flawless technique combined with the grace and elegance of a true dancer noble .....

... a first for me, at least – the special attributes of ENB’s latest star acquisition, 26-year-old Austrian Natascha Mair, whose lightning speed in piqué turns defies her lavish length of leg.

.... and Isaac Hernández is on good form in the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake, partnering a deliciously wicked Natascha Mair.

......Elsewhere, Natascha Mair as Clara offers a delightfully innocent and playful performance that perfectly captures the character. ......

...... On the very night of this performance, Mair was promoted – at 23 – to First Soloist at the curtain call (the company’s equivalent of principal); so her meteoric rise is to be followed closely when dancers eventually can get back on the world’s stages. Mair already performs here with a rare naturalness and never – at any time – do you see her open face register the technical demands of the choreography and her dancing has lightness, speed, and an easy fluency. Mair’s vivid response to the music seems instinctive and she seems to have the ability – not given to all ballerinas – to embellish a phrase to stress the rhythm and intrinsic emotion. ......

.... Mair immediately announces herself as someone to look out for in the future; her Clara is open faced and full of wonder and her dancing has a delightful lyrical ease with exquisitely soft arms. Never for any moment did you see her face foretell how she was going to move next and Mair exuded an aura that dancing is the most natural thing to do to express oneself....

..... Opening night will see Natascha Mair’s first performance with English National Ballet. ....

... “attitude” wishes our dear Natascha just the best for this new, exciting period of her career and says THANKS for all the joy you have given us!

.... All dancers extremely well-rehearsed, precisely together, in perfect unison technically and emotionally either as a pair (Alice Firenze/Masayu Kimoto, Natascha Mair/James Stephens, Nikisha Fogo/Richard Szabó and Erika Kovácová/Zsolt Török), solo (Iliana Chivarova), trio (Céline Janou Weder – totally in her element, „projecting“ herself up till the gallery! - and Gaetano Signorelli & Arne Vandervelde) or as a group altogether...

... Natascha Mair had her first Swan Lake in the Theatre in Aspendos (Antalya, Turkey) in the first week of September last (for this performance she was coached by the great Brigitte Stadler) and then on September 25th with the Kremlin Ballet in Moscow, in which she danced with Isaac Hernandéz (English National Ballet) and was coached by no one but the marvellous Tamara Rojo. Moments to be remembered

... Natascha and I first met last December 2018, I was lucky enough to catch her on the day she was promoted to Principal Dancer of Vienna State Opera Ballet, it was such a coincidence having bought the tickets 3 months before the show not knowing that she would be the one performing. ...

... But this “easiness” to be “in” the roles is just achieved by hard work. That is the point I would like to refer to: Natascha Mair's and Denys Cherevychko's pinpointed work was present from the beginning on till the very end of the show. It may not sound extremely important but for a balletomane it makes all the difference to witness clean Piqués Arabesque and Pas-de-Chats (on her first variation of the first Act) as well as his sharp, precise Jetés, also at the beginning of Act I. ...

.... Hers is a translucent Clara who has the qualities that I have missed on stage since Gelsey Kirkland and Lesley Browne (Both danced the Baryshnikov version, which I rather prefer to Nureyev's one): sincerity, delicacy, suavity., transparency...  

..... Her strength and frailty at the same time are a rare thing – her vulnerability and sadness towards the end of the piece, the way in which Antoinette “gives up” astonishing. ...  

…… But it was rookie Natascha Mair, aged 18 and who joined the corps de ballet just six months ago, who had everyone talking after her cool performance in Dawson's "A Million Kisses to my Skin," replacing Polakova and holding her own alongside many of the company's greatest names ...