Possibly a bit late to the party with this one, but I’ve recently been introduced to Ballet in Birmingham. “To mark the start of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 2011-12 season, the Company has joined forces with a Birmingham-based photographer to create Ballet in Birmingham. The campaign celebrates this world-class ballet company in Birmingham, the city it has called its home for the last 21 years.
Photographer Richard Battye captured images of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 13 Principal dancers, the Company’s Director David Bintley, Assistant Director Marion Tait and Chief Executive Christopher Barron in areas of Birmingham that mean something special to them, away from their work with the Company.”
Last week, Kassie and I accepted a kind invitation to attend Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella press night at the Birmingham Hippodrome, and the performance was magical. Several of the dancers that performed in last Wednesday’s Cinderella feature in Richard’s set, including Cinderella, Elisha Willis. Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella is on at the Birmingham Hippodrome until the 9th December, and tickets are still available.
In related ballet news, the third instalment of Pointe Blank (Collections of original images inspired by the plots of major narrative works by BRB, and created by professional designers in and around the UK.) has been available to view online for a while now, and is worth checking out.
I saw Cinderella on Saturday night. I don’t have much experience of ballet, I thought myself more of a theatre guy, but I have to say that the performance really challenged my assumptions of what ballet is and can be like. The performance was light, fun, engaging and the sets were beautiful. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone – particularly if you don’t usually go to see ballet. Well done BRB!