Originally founded in 1950 by famous British dancers Anton Dolin and Alicia Markova, the London Festival Ballet—now the English National Ballet—has been enthralling audiences worldwide ever since with the dramatic and graceful steps of its classically trained dancers.

The renowned company recently performed exclusively for Aon's invited guests in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. We took that opportunity to speak with Craig Hassall, managing director of the English National Ballet, about how he manages risk.

Q: How do you prepare for a unique event like the performance in St. Paul's?
A: We started planning months in advance, working with the Cathedral staff to see where we could put the stage and the orchestra, and where the audience would be. In ballet, seeing the feet is the most important thing—everything else is lovely, but it's all about the feet, so we needed to ensure that the audience had a clear view. Once we knew the size of stage we would have, we chose a program that would fit it.

Q: There isn't normally a stage in the center of St Paul's. How much time did you have to set up?
A: The complication with St Paul's is that it's a cathedral, not a theater. We were only allowed to start setting up at the end of their day—90 minutes before the performance. In that time we had to build the stage, lay the sprung floor, put down the dancing surface, set up the orchestra, and give the dancers time for a placing call. It was like a military operation!

Q: What's a placing call?
A: It's where they run through each piece and work out where the edge of the stage is, so that in their mind they can block about a meter from the edge to make sure they don't fall off. With all the movement, jumps and lifts, it's essential for the dancers' confidence that they know where the limits are so they can focus on delivering the best performance.

Q: Do they actually adjust their performance to the stage?
A: Absolutely. They have to make sure that the moves will fit the available space. For example, say three dancers have to start from different places, move at the same pace and meet up in the center. That might be six steps on a big stage and three steps at St. Paul's. Well, you've got to agree that it's three, not four or five, otherwise one will get there too early! They had one run-through of each piece, and that was it.

Q: Have you ever turned up to do a performance and discovered that the plan has changed drastically?,br /> A: Oh yes! One time we were doing a soiree for a very wealthy couple in their home. Everything was fine when we did the site visit, but on the day, they said the stage had to go three feet from where we had planned. Normally it would be absolutely fine, but there was an enormous chandelier—I could see dancers crashing into it in the middle of a lift! So they had to modify their performance to avoid destroying the chandelier or injuring themselves.

Q: Injuries must be one of the biggest risks for the company and the individual dancers.
A: They are, and we do a huge amount of work to prevent injuries. We have a strict fitness regimen. We put monitors on a number of dancers at the start of a season. They wear the monitors for three or four days, 24 hours a day. We look at rest patterns and heart rates, checking their fatigue levels to know how much fitness they need to build up to prevent injury.

We also have a sports scientist working for us who works out fitness programs to suit the repertoire we're doing. If we're doing a ballet such as Swan Lake, it's a lot more work for the girls, a lot of pointe work, so it means they have to have stronger legs for that season. Or in Alice in Wonderland there are lots of prosthetic heads for the mad hatter and the white rabbit and so on. But wearing a big head and dancing means neck strains are a problem, so we do a lot of work on building up strength in the boys' necks.