Press Release: BRB Autumn 2013 Season at the Birmingham Hippodrome

[Jan McNulty]

Media release: Monday 9 September 2013

BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET’S 2013 AUTUMN SEASON at BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME

 

A triple bill of David Bintley’s works, Penguin Cafe

Sir Peter Wright’s production of The Sleeping Beauty

 

Venue and booking information:

Birmingham Hippodrome: Tickets: 0844 338 5000       www.birminghamhippodrome.com

 

Birmingham Royal Ballet is delighted to return to the Birmingham Hippodrome stage from 3 – 12 October.  The Company will perform its autumn season in its home city with two productions; a triple bill of some of David Bintley’s best loved works entitled Penguin Café and one of the most popular fairy-tale ballets of all time, Sir Peter Wright’s The Sleeping Beauty.

 

PENGUIN CAFÉ                                                                 3 – 5 OCTOBER

(TOMBEAUX / E=mc² / ‘STILL LIFE’ AT THE PENGUIN CAFÉ)

 

These three contrasting works are some of the most popular, innovative and best-loved of David Bintley’s output over the last 25 years.

 

Tombeaux is Bintley’s lament on the death of his mentor, the great Frederick Ashton. This homage to classical ballet draws you into a passionate and melancholic landscape.

 

E=mc²promises an intriguing and exhilarating experience. Winner of ITV’s last ever South Bank Show award for Dance in 2010, it is danced to a specially commissioned score by Australian composer Matthew Hindson. It explores Einstein’s celebrated ‘Special Theory of Relativity’ in music and dance of breath-taking energy and speed.

 

Perhaps one of Bintley’s best known ballets, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café introduces a colourful host of endangered animals seeking shelter from the storm. Watch as humans and animals mingle, enjoying drinks and polite conversation in the Penguin Café. Be introduced to a morris-dancing flea, a ballroom-dancing ram, a Carnival-loving woolly monkey, and many more, in a ballet that takes a witty and poignant look at man’s impact on the world. 

 

 

 

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY                                                 8 – 12 OCTOBER

 

On her christening day Princess Aurora is cursed by the wicked fairy Carabosse: one day the Princess will prick her finger on a spindle and die. But the kind Lilac Fairy tempers the curse so the Princess will instead fall asleep for 100 years.

 

With a classical score by Tchaikovsky and original choreography by Marius Petipa, The Sleeping Beauty is considered one of the greatest ballets from Imperial Russia. This thrilling production is by Birmingham Royal Ballet’s former director Sir Peter Wright, creator of the Company’s beloved production of The Nutcracker. With its romantic finale packed with every fairy-tale character imaginable, The Sleeping Beauty is as engaging now as when she first fell asleep, over a hundred years ago.

 

PERFORMANCE DIARY FOR THE 2013 BIRMINGHAM AUTUMN SEASON

 

PENGUIN CAFÉ (TOMBEAUX / E= mc² / STILL LIFE AT THE PENGUIN CAFÉ)

Birmingham Hippodrome: Thursday 3 to Saturday 5 October

Thursday 3 October – 7.30pm

Friday 4 October – 2pm and 7.30pm

Saturday 5 October – 2.30pm and 7.30pm

 

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

Birmingham Hippodrome: Tuesday 8 – Saturday October

Tuesday 8 October – 7.30pm

Wednesday 9 October – 2pm and 7.30pm

Thursday 10 October – 7.30pm

Friday 11 October – 2pm and 7.30pm

Saturday 12 October – 2.30pm and 7.30pm

 

Venue and booking information:

Birmingham Hippodrome: Tickets: 0844 338 5000    www.birminghamhippodrome.com