Press Release - Birmingham Royal Ballet and Birmingham Repertory Theatre announce live performances in June featuring two world premieres

[Jan McNulty]

PRESS RELEASE
26 March 2021

#BRBCuratedbyCarlos  #BRBattheREP
#BRBCinderella  #BRBattheREP

 

Birmingham Royal Ballet and Birmingham Repertory Theatre announce live performances in June featuring two world premieres

 

●      CURATED BY CARLOS FEATURES TWO WORLD PREMIERES: CITY OF A THOUSAND TRADES AND IMMINENT IN A TRIPLE BILL WITH UK PREMIERE OF CHACONA

 

●      ADAPTED VERSION OF BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET’S CLASSIC PRODUCTION OF CINDERELLA TO BE STAGED IN BIRMINGHAM IN LATE JUNE

 

●      CINDERELLA TOURING TO THEATRE ROYAL PLYMOUTH IN JULY

 

Birmingham Royal Ballet and Birmingham Repertory Theatre are delighted to announce a tantalising triple bill and performances of an adapted production of Sir David Bintley’s classic Cinderella for audiences this June.

 

Last October the partnership was launched in a brief window where audiences were able to enjoy live performances in the theatre with a triple bill featuring the world premiere of Will Tuckett’s Lazuli Sky. This was followed by an adapted version of The Nutcracker which more than 10,000 people bought tickets to watch online via both a live-streamed show and view-on-demand.

 

Now the ambition of this partnership is taken to the next level with two world premiere Ballet Now commissions, a UK premiere and the staging of another Birmingham Royal Ballet classic.

 

Curated by Carlos Triple Bill

City of a Thousand Trades

2020 marked the 30th anniversary of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s move to the City in 1990. City of a Thousand Trades is a new one act abstract ballet inspired by and celebrating the richly diverse cultural and industrial heritage of Birmingham in a love letter to the city.

 

Commissioned as part of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Ballet Now programme and produced in association with The REP, City of a Thousand Trades will be created by choreographer Miguel Altunaga and co-directed in rehearsal with and dramaturgy by The REP Associate Director, Madeleine Kludje, with music inspired by the city’s soundscape, including its legacy as the birthplace of Heavy Metal, composed by Mathias Coppens and performed live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, designs by Guilia Scrimieri, lighting by Michael Lee-Woolley.

 

Birmingham became known as the City of a Thousand Trades at the height of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, thanks to the exponential growth of businesses using the central location and vast water network for transport and manufacturing. As the city grew into the second largest in the UK, highly skilled workers and tradespeople migrated to the city from throughout the Commonwealth including Ireland, India, the West Indies, and from all over the world, creating a melting pot of cultures.

 

Havana-born choreographer Miguel Altunaga has created work for Rambert, The Royal Ballet (as part of the Deloitte Ignite Festival 2014), Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, Tate Modern, for bands Simply Red and The Zutons, for Raindance an award-winning film Love Tomorrow, and previously for Carlos Acosta (Memoria). As a performer he is twice winner of the Cuban Best Male Solo Award, and a Critics’ Circle of London National Dance Award nominee.

 

Imminent

Brazilian/British choreographer Daniela Cardim’s Imminent has been created with a team of international talent, including composer Paul Englishby, designer April Dalton, dramaturg Lou Cope, assistant choreographer Peter Leung and lighting designer Peter Teigen.

 

The new abstract work is inspired by the feeling that something significant is looming and that change is imminent. As rainforests burn and consumption rises, as populism surges and democracy is tested in previously unimaginable ways, and as the health and harmony we allowed ourselves to believe in is being exposed as fragile and unsustainable, the balance we thought we could maintain is precarious to say the least. A tipping-point is approaching.

 

Imminent invites us to recognise that a window of opportunity is now calling upon us. There is hope – and it is important to let go of the past, to take action and move boldly on.

 

Imminent is Daniela’s first commission for Birmingham Royal Ballet. She has choreographed work for companies across the globe including Dutch National Ballet, New English Ballet Theatre, Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo Companhia de Dança, School of American Ballet and Elmhurst Ballet School.

 

Speaking about her collaborators Cardim said: ‘Very often, when choreographing, I have worked with only a designer and the dancers. For Imminent I am working with a great team who each bring their own expertise to the work.’

 

‘Paul’s music is epic with touching melodies, Lou helped me shape what I wanted to say and how we could translate that into dance, April has created some beautiful designs and it has been so great to be able to work through choreographic ideas with Peter Leung.’

At last the premiere of the piece is indeed imminent.

 

Chacona

The UK premiere of Spanish choreographer (and resident at Acosta Danza) Goyo Montero’s thrillingly physical work Chacona, set to electrifying music by J.S. Bach and performed live on stage by violin, guitar and piano, together with 16 dancers, completes the triple bill. 

 

Chacona from Bach’s Partita no.3 is a challenge for any musician.  Montero combines the original violin score with the piano and guitar to create three different levels, three states, like communicating vessels that create an ever-rising tension. The music is in the communication between the dancers and musicians on stage, making each live experience unique. Drawn from Montero’s 2003 ballet Vasos Comunicantes, Chacona was originally premiered by National Ballet Sodre, Montevideo (Uruguay) in July 2017.

 

Cinderella 

Sir David Bintley’s Cinderella is a family favourite, capturing every imagination with its sure-fire mix of wonderful dance, spectacular scenery, and a cast of characters that even includes a dancing frog.

This enchanting fairytale is a glorious celebration of ballet, with breathtaking designs by John Macfarlane the designer of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s famous Nutcracker, and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia playing Prokofiev’s beautiful music live, with a reduced score and staging adaptations to allow for social distancing and performer ‘bubbles’.

 

The award-winning show boasts a spectacular ball and some stunning coups de théâtre, such as the clock at the end of the ball and a beautiful spun-sugar-like carriage. 

 

Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet Carlos Acosta said: ‘To be able to present work to audiences again this June will be a huge relief, we are already rehearsing and it is incredibly motivating and inspiring for the Company to have this to look forward to and work hard towards in collaboration with Sean Foley and The REP team. It is over a year since the theatres closed and a year later than planned that these two new works, which I am very excited about, will finally make their premieres. The programme illustrates what I want this Company to be and highlights our commitment to diverse talent.’

 

Artistic Director of The REP Sean Foley said: 'To be re-opening our wonderful theatre this summer with an array of talent from across Birmingham and the world is thrilling. In our 50th year on Centenary Square we will embrace an amazing diversity of theatrical form and content, of artists and audiences, and celebrate the joy of live performance in all its forms - from comedy to ballet, from musicals to contemporary drama, and everything in between. To have these very special performances from Birmingham Royal Ballet so soon after the first restrictions are lifted - and after so successfully starting our new collaboration during the long lockdown - is a wonderful testament to Birmingham’s unique cultural spirit.’

 

Tickets for Curated by Carlos (10-12 June) and Sir David Bintley’s Cinderella (18-26 June) at Birmingham Repertory Theatre go on priority sale to Birmingham Royal Ballet Friends and REP Members from 10am on Tuesday 13 April and to the public from midday on Friday 16 April. Visit birmingham-rep.co.uk for more information and to book tickets.

 

Cinderella will also be performed at Theatre Royal Plymouth during the week commencing 5 July. Tickets will be on public sale from early May.

 

As the Government’s roadmap unrolls, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s plans will develop, with more exciting announcements in the pipeline for later this year. 

 

 

LISTINGS INFORMATION:

 

CURATED BY CARLOS - TRIPLE BILL

10 - 12 June 

General on-sale midday 16 April

birmingham-rep.co.uk

Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EP

 

CINDERELLA

18 - 26 June 

General on-sale midday 16 April

birmingham-rep.co.uk

Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EP

 

CINDERELLA

w/c 5 July

Press performance and onsale dates TBA

Theatre Royal Plymouth, Royal Parade, Plymouth PL1 2TR

_________________________________________________

 

NOTES TO EDITORS: 

 

City of a Thousand Trades is supported by the Oakley Charitable Trust

City of a Thousand Trades and Imminent are Ballet Now commissions

 

Ballet Now is generously supported by Oak Foundation’s Special Interest Programme, which provided major funding for the project. Ballet Now is also supported by the Foyle Foundation, Anthony Coombs and The Keith Coombs Trust, The Big Give 2017, The John Feeney Charitable Trust, The Leche Trust, The John S Cohen Foundation, The Hochhauser Foundation, The H Steven and PE Wood Charitable Trust, The W and M Morris Charitable Trust, the estate of Judith and John Percival, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s New Work Syndicate 2017 and Director’s Appeal 2017. 

 

City of a Thousand Trades

Mathias Coppens - Composer 

Miguel Altunaga – Choreographer and Co-Director

Madeleine Kludje – Dramaturg and Co-Director

Giulia Scrimieri - Designs

Michael Lee-Woolley - Lighting Design

 

Imminent

Paul Englishby - Composer 

Daniela Cardim - Choreographer 

April Dalton - Designs

Peter Teigen - Lighting 

Lou Cope - Dramaturg 

Peter Leung - Assistant Choreographer

 

Chacona

Johann Sebastian Bach - Composer 

Goyo Montero - Choreographer 

Verena Hemmerlein, Goyo Montero - Costumes

Nicolás Fischtel, Goyo Montero - Lighting 

Carlos Lázaro Aquillué - Répétiteur 

Ivan Gil-Ortega - Assistant to the Choreographer

 

Cinderella

Sergei Prokofiev - Composer 

David Bintley - Choreographer 

John Macfarlane - Designs

 

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Based at Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Royal Ballet is the United Kingdom’s leading touring ballet company performing a range of traditional, classical and heritage ballets as well as ground-breaking new works with the aim of encouraging choreographers of the future.

 

The Company’s Director since January 2020 is the internationally renowned Carlos Acosta.

Birmingham Royal Ballet standardly performs at Birmingham Hippodrome for approximately ten weeks of the year and the remainder of the year tours throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. On average, the Company performs 175 shows a year nationally and internationally.

 

The Royal Ballet Sinfonia is Birmingham Royal Ballet’s permanent orchestra, it is also Britain's busiest ballet orchestra. The Sinfonia also plays frequently for The Royal Ballet and other leading ballet companies, including performances with The Royal Ballet, Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Kirov, Norwegian Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and La Scala Ballet.

 

Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Birmingham Repertory Theatre is the only producing theatre in the UK’s Second City.

The oldest building-based theatre company in the UK, The REP has an unparalleled pioneering history and has been at the forefront of theatre in this country for over 100 years. It is a registered charity (number 223660).

 

The REP’s mission is to create artistically ambitious popular theatre for, by and with the people of Birmingham and the wider world.

 

The commissioning and production of new work lies at the core of The REP’s programme and over the last 15 years, the company has produced more than 130 new plays. As well as presenting over 60 productions on its three stages every year, the theatre tours its productions nationally and internationally. The REP’s acclaimed learning and outreach programme is one of the largest and most diverse of any arts organisation in the country. Every year we have over 70,000 contacts with young people and adults in the community on projects from drama or writing workshops to large-scale productions. The REP is also committed to nurturing new talent through its youth theatre groups, and it offers training for early career writers, directors, and artists through its ground-breaking REP Foundry theatre-makers programme.

 

Many of The REP’s productions go on to have lives beyond Birmingham. Recent tours and transfers include The Lovely Bones, Brief Encounter, Nativity! The Musical, What Shadows, LOVE, The Winslow Boy, The Government Inspector, Of Mice and Men, Anita and Me, Penguins and The King’s Speech. The theatre’s long-running production of The Snowman celebrated its 25th anniversary as well as its 22nd consecutive season at London's Peacock Theatre in 2019.

[Jan McNulty]

Carlos Acosta is just about to come on Alan Titchmarsh' Love Your Weekend on ITV (10:35)

[Jan McNulty]

Birmingham Royal Ballet has released a short trailer for City of 1000 Trades: