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Cocaine, disappearances, acid attacks and defections. If anybody had dared to think ballet was a place for posh voices, dainty manners and rigid behaviour, then 2013 has been the year to raise the curtain on some tutu truths.

This week the English National Ballet announced that it has acquired one of the Royal Ballet’s star dancers, Alina Cojocaru. She and her off- and on-stage partner, Johan Kobborg (the Angelina and Brad of ballet), suddenly announced their intention to leave the Royal Ballet in June, just two days before what would be their final performance on the Royal Opera House stage.

Then, in a second blow to fans and to the company, they said last week that they would miss their scheduled last ever outing with the Royal Ballet. Instead of opening a production of Swan Lake in Tokyo last Saturday, they quit early after a gala performance in Japan last week, blaming injury — leaving two of the company’s other principals, Steven McRae and Roberta Marquez, to perform twice in one day.

Kobborg posted a message on Facebook after his curtain call, saying he was “leaving [the Royal Ballet] on good terms,” yet also criticised his “boss”, the Royal Ballet’s director, Kevin O’Hare, who he said offered “not a single hug or even a handshake” as a farewell and claimed that the Royal Ballet refused to book him a taxi to the airport. He wrote, “may I never (dancers excluded) have to ever meet you [the RB] again.” Whether his complaints were founded is not clear but it would not be a surprise if Kobborg’s abrupt departure had left the Royal Ballet feeling equally upset. O’Hare said in response, “During their time with us, [Alina and Johan] have given many memorable performances both at the Royal Opera House and around the world. We continue to wish them every success in the next phase of their careers.”

Now, just days later, Cojocaru has joined London’s rival company, the ENB. But these have not been the only tutu frills ruffled this year. At the start of the year an acid attack, allegedly arranged by one of his dancers, put the artistic director of Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet, Sergei Filin, in hospital. It was revealed last month that he is still blind after 18 operations.

Meanwhile, ballet’s top boy Sergei Polunin, a 23-year-old dancer thought to be the best in the world, keeps doing a Charlie Sheen. Last year he resigned from the Royal Ballet, saying he was quitting dancing altogether, and admitted performing under the influence of cocaine. This year, having returned to dance with a new company, the Moscow Stanislavski Ballet, he then disappeared in April just days before opening night of a production at the London Coliseum. Ballet is in a spin.

It was in April last year that Tamara Rojo, one of ballet’s biggest ever stars and former principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, was appointed the new artistic director (and dancer) at the English National Ballet. At the time, she said to me, “I need to make English National Ballet its own thing and it cannot be second best to [the Royal].”

Now, a year in to the job and having just scored a coup by getting Alina Cojocaru, one of her old Royal Ballet chums, to join her on the other side, she says: “I don’t feel second best at all.”

“What has been very exciting to discover is the level of collaborations that we have been able to attract in the first year,” she says, listing partnerships with top choreographers and with fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Julien Macdonald, which were no doubt thanks to Rojo’s own involvement in the company.

The acquisition of Cojocaru should bring “international recognition” to the ENB, says Rojo who is also “very happy” that next year Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, ballet’s most famous leading man and Rojo’s former partner at the Royal Ballet, will join her on stage once more in a production of Romeo and Juliet for the ENB at the Royal Albert Hall — one of their most highly acclaimed partnerships.

These days, Acosta splits his guest performances between the London-based companies and worldwide billings. Last year Rojo also brought Vadim Muntagirov to the ENB as a principal. The Russian has partnered Rojo herself in the past and has been described as a “dream” dancer.

At the request of its board, Rojo first interviewed for the job of artistic director at the Royal Ballet before applying to the ENB, but then didn’t get the role. Now she is certainly showing them how well she would have done the job.

Rojo points out that the ENB is “a very different company with a very different personality and raison d’etre” to the Royal Ballet. But with so many of the Royal’s old faces turning up on ENB stages, it becomes easier to draw comparisons. “I’m not really interested in a competition,” says Rojo, who adds that, “When I announced [Alina’s appointment] yesterday the company started to clap and cheer so I think they were rather pleased. Having that level of artist around is inspiring. We all want to be surrounded by the best, learn from the best, to dance with the best.”

Indeed, one of the ENB’s other star principal dancers, Czech Daria Klimentová, says: “It’s really great that Alina is joining us at ENB, because she is going to go around the world and take ENB with her.”

A ballet insider suggested the departure of leading players from the Royal Ballet is a consequence of the tough rule of Kevin O’Hare’s predecessor, Dame Monica Mason. In the past, Polunin has said he and Mason “weren’t friends. I was scared of her”. In May, French dancer Sylvie Guillem, another former Royal Ballet star, said in an interview that Mason, “was exactly what a director of a company should not be, stupid, frustrated, no vision. That’s why I left when she took over.”

Whatever the truth, O’Hare seems unworried. “The landscape of a ballet company is always changing,” he says. “Dancers’ careers are relatively short and interesting offers may arise that prompt a dancer to decide it’s time for a new challenge.”

Deborah Bull, former creative director of the Royal Ballet and current director of cultural partnerships at King’s Cultural Institute, agrees. “Particularly for dancers of Alina’s reputation and talent it’s probably not surprising that within the course of her career she might want to sample the menu at different ballet companies.” She thinks Cojocaru will develop her dancing and thereby avoid comparisons to her time at the Royal Ballet. “Dancers are not bought as seen, they are growing and evolving artists,” she says.

For O’Hare, “Change inevitably opens up opportunities for other people and creates the room for a new generation of dancers.”

He is “thrilled” to have recently appointed Russian dancer, Natalia Osipova as a principal to join in the new season. The former Bolshoi dancer is described as a “superstar” of ballet.

Meanwhile, the company has made several recent promotions, such as 25-year-old Brit Melissa Hamilton, who has become a first soloist — one away from the top spot. It also retains highly regarded dancers such as Sarah Lamb, Lauren Cuthbertson, Edward Watson and Stephen McRae, whose names draw in audiences.

“There’s definitely room for both ballet companies,” says O’Hare, “it’s good for dancers, it’s good for choreographers, it’s good for the art form but most importantly it’s good for audiences to have more opportunities to see fantastic performances ... For me, the most important thing is that people are talking about ballet and dance,” he says. And talking they are.