ARMAND LEAVES BOSTON BALLET.

Patrick Armand, the leading male dancer of Boston Ballet, is leaving the company mid-season for a return to London to rejoin the English National Ballet. The French-born dancer had come to Boston from ENB in 1990. Now 34, Armand is exchanging forty weeks annually with Boston Ballet for a fifty-two-week contract with ENB that includes international touring. BB's artistic director, Anna-Marie Holmes, feels that Armand's departure will be good for him. "He is in his prime for European audiences. This change gives me a chance to show some new faces on the Boston stage," she says. On his side, Armand expressed some dissatisfaction with the company's infrequent dancer evaluations and the sparse number of guest teachers to stimulate the dancers' development.

Armand's final appearances with BB included the leading role in Roland Petit's Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, which had its BB premiere in the March 4 to 14 series; and George Balanchine's Divertimento No. 15 in the March 18 to 28 repertory program.