Next week an unusual dance combination arrives at The New Theatre; English National Ballet and world street dance champions, Flawless.

This is a programme in which the two sets of dancers with such contrasting styles combine: ten ballerinas from English National Ballet, and ten boys from Flawless, who hit the headlines in Britain’s Got Talent in 2009. Since then the Flawless bandwagon has been unstoppable, with a 110-date tour of their own show, and a cornucopia of awards. But dancing with ballerinas? Marlon “Swoosh” Wallen, director and choreographer of Flawless, told me how this unlikely project got started.

“It was my idea. We’re known for street dance, but some of us have also studied contemporary dance, and I had done a bit of ballet as well, so we’ve always been open-minded to other dance styles.

“We had met dancers from English National Ballet at Buckingham Palace, doing a show for The Queen last year with performances inspired by Romeo and Juliet. They were quite impressed by the performance we put together, and we were quite impressed by them. We got talking and did a show together at the O2 Arena last year, which gave a sample of what we were capable of together, and that pretty much blew everyone away.”

But classical dancers learn new work in a completely different way from street dancers. They have known steps and are told what to do by a choreographer. Flawless work more by committee — trying things out and picking what works.

So combining with ballerinas can’t have been easy?

“During the rehearsal process what we’ve done is a series of workshops. We would be teaching them street dance techniques. They hadn’t realised there are so many techniques, so many different styles, and they had to learn why we would do something. Then, although some of us have been trained, we’d never done partnering work, pas de deux, so we learnt an extreme amount from this period. We did a workshop every day, all day, for two weeks, putting ourselves in each other’s shoes. Partnering was the main difficulty; it’s such a crucial thing. If you don’t understand the technique of how to hold a ballet dancer in the right way you can drop her, and that’s a hazard.”

When it came to making the show they worked together with English National Ballet’s Jenna Lee.

“Jenna’s been the lead choreographer for the girls and I’ve been the lead choreographer for the boys, but the boys have also helped me choreograph as well, because they’re all individually talented, and we tried to bring all their skills to the table. We also had some help from the boys of English National Ballet who popped in for classes and have been very supportive in showing us how to do what they do.”

ENB is a very big company, and I asked Jenna Lee how she picked the ten girls for this project, and whether there was much enthusiasm for taking part in it.

“They were really keen. We’re known for doing all the big classical ballets, and it’s really nice when these projects come along. It’s about trying to keep the company fresh, and introducing ten break-dancers is a brilliant way to do that.

“So the girls were really interested, and they were selected by myself and the ballet staff. The thing is, all the girls are versatile dancers. Obviously when you’re making a show like this there are going to be some artistic differences, that part of it really, But we’re all connected through music, and Flawless are passionate, and they’ve got great rhythm, so it wasn’t difficult.

“The main difference is that the boys do a lot of workshops, while in classical ballet rehearsals are quite structured so we had to get used to the way the boys work. But it’s not just wanting our vision to come alive; for us the creative process is part of the show. These rehearsals have just been brilliant, it’s been the most wonderful experience”.

Did Flawless learn any classical steps for the show, I wondered?

“Oh yes”, Marlon told me, “That’s something that you will see. But the great thing is it’s targeted at all audiences, all ages, not just for one particular audience, and it’s quite a fun, upbeat show. You’ve got some magical duets in there, and you’ve got a great story line”.

Jenna Lee added: “We put in a bit of narrative to bond the two companies. It’s about four students having a battle with an evil time-manipulator. They find in his journal he’s building this clock that’s going to destroy time. The piece is about the trials and tribulations of their journey to find this clock.”

Flawless and English National Ballet premiered at Hammersmith Apollo last week. It’s at The New Theatre Oxford next Thursday and Friday, and at the Aylesbury Waterside on 30 June and 01 July.