Our dancers will wear skirts two metres wide so they can still be social-distanced
A new ballet created in response to the coronavirus pandemic is being presented as part of an innovative partnership between two of Birmingham’s leading arts organisations. DIANE PARKES reports
TWO of Birmingham’s leading arts organisations have announced an exciting new collaboration which will see the city host two dance world premieres. The innovative partnership between Birmingham Royal Ballet and Birmingham Repertory Theatre will be launched in October with the first performance of Lazuli Sky – a work exploring social distancing and featuring augmented reality on stage and live streaming for people to watch on their personal devices. This will be followed by a second world premiere, City of a Thousand Trades, that will tell the stories of the people of Birmingham in spring 2021.
While the last few months have been among the most difficult faced by both companies as Covid-19 and lockdown have prevented live performance and decimated income, Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Rep are confident their new productions will return them to centre stage in the city.
Both dance legend Carlos Acosta and Rep artistic director Sean Foley came to Birmingham within the past 18 months – and share a vision for the arts in the city.
“We both agree that we need to turn up the volume in terms of talking about Birmingham being at the forefront of the arts - we must be bolder,” explains Carlos, who took over the helm of Birmingham Royal Ballet in January after dancing worldwide as a principal with the Royal Ballet.
“When Sean and I spoke about collaboration it felt like we were both saying the same thing and we began swapping ideas. We both have a commitment to making Birmingham the greatest city in the arts. Collaboration between Birmingham Royal Ballet and The Rep is a perfect fit and begins a new era in creating new artistic works for Birmingham.”
Sean, who took up his post at The Rep in the summer of last year, says: “Carlos and I are both leading these amazing cultural institutions and it is part of our job to amplify everything that is going on in Birmingham and to create excellence here – for the people of Birmingham and for a wider field.
“Particularly now, when we know that finance for everyone is going to be difficult going forward, there is a necessity to collaborate but there is also a desire to collaborate and create new works. I think these projects will be great for both of our organisations and for our city.”
The first production, Lazuli Sky, will premiere at The Rep in October and is Birmingham Royal Ballet’s response to the lockdown and its effects on the arts. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the ballet company’s move to Birmingham and a gala year of events has been largely cancelled due to the lockdown. “One thing which was clear as soon as lockdown began was that ballet, as an art form, could not be still,” says Carlos. “We have spent 30 years in Birmingham building our reputation and creating all this amazing work and now we suddenly could not deliver it. “That aspect of not performing really worried me. For ballet dancers your body is your art and you need to perform. Dancers are dancing in their kitchens and their living rooms but it’s not the same as dancing on a stage.
“So we needed to look at creating a response from our industry to a moment like this. This time is so unprecedented we should leave a record of it behind as a response to the life we are living. Then in years forward when people have forgotten this, we can go back and show how a work of art responded.”
Carlos approached Birmingham-born and internationally acclaimed choreographer Will Tuckett to create the piece, which is set to music by John Adams and features technical innovation, and projection animation with dancers adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Lazuli Sky is inspired by the blue gemstone lapis lazuli, which was the basis of the most expensive paint colour used by Renaissance artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. Lapis lazuli was so precious it was used for the holiest of figures and to create the bluest of skies – and it’s this idea of open skies during lockdown which has inspired Tuckett’s new work.
“I spoke to Will and he had some great ideas,” says Carlos. “For example the dancers will have these skirts which are two metres wide so they cannot breach that twometre ‘social-distance’ gap. And then we will have projections onto the stage from all directions which will create an augmented reality on stage.”
Lazuli Skies will be performed alongside Our Waltzes, a dance celebrating love and romance choreographed by Vicente Nebrada, and Liebestod, a solo piece created by Valery Panov in response to the final scenes of Wagner’s tragic opera Tristan and Isolde.
The programme will launch a series of live stream events at The Rep. It is hoped the show will also be performed in front of a socially distanced live audience but, like venues across the city, The Rep has yet to receive Government guidelines on when that will be possible. The two companies are also working together on another new ballet – inspired by people’s stories of immigration to and life in Birmingham. The work will be called City of a Thousand Trades – a name given to Birmingham after it became a world leader during the Industrial Revolution. Created by Cuban dancer and choreographer Miguel Altunaga, the premiere forms part of Birmingham Royal
Ballet’s Ballet Now project, which was launched in 2017 and sees the company committed to commissioning work from new choreographers, designers and composers.
“As soon as I came to Birmingham I wanted to create a ballet about the history of the people of Birmingham,” says Carlos. “This is a city of immigrants who share the story of Birmingham and I’m very interested that the work explores that. And I want people to connect to those stories, to come and see the show and say ‘Wow, that is my grandfather, or me, in many ways’.
“I also think we have a responsibility to break the stigma that ballet is elitist, white and of yesterday. We do have a tradition of ballet with The Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet and they won’t go anywhere, but I’m also very interested in the idea of giving ballet a voice of the time we are living in. That way ballet is not just about the past but also the present and into the future.
“It’s about defying people’s expectations about ballet. Hopefully a title like this will make people think ‘I wonder what that is?’ and ‘how are they going to do that?’ and then people will come and watch.”
City of a Thousand Trades will feature authentic Birmingham voices gathered from both historical archives and new interviews made with the team at The Rep.
Sean says: “The Rep is a national leader in community development and has really good connections with community arts hubs and groups so we have a lot of places we can go to talk to people.
“One of the amazing things about Birmingham is that it is a city of immigration. My dad came to Birmingham from Ireland and met my mum who was a working-class Birmingham girl so I’m personally connected to that story. City of a Thousand Trades will celebrate immigration and see our city’s diversity as one of its strengths.”
AROLL call of leading chefs have got behind a project aimed at raising funds for hospitality workers who have been affected by the coronavirus crisis.
Tom Kerridge, Rick Stein and Prue Leith are among those who have contributed recipes to charity cookbook, Feast With Purpose.
The project came about thanks to chef Simon Boyle, the man behind the Beyond Food Foundation, which helps disadvantaged and vulnerable adults get the training they need to work in the hospitality industry.
Simon says: “We’ve pulled together an amazing and inspiring collection of recipes, from some astounding chefs, all during lockdown. It’s been a labour of love, but it’s reminded me about what’s at the heart of what we do – the power of food to inspire, bring people together and give purpose to our lives.
“But it’s not just about cooking. This is also about doing our bit to support an industry that is seriously struggling.
“A job in hospitality is one that I would usually associate with hope and opportunity; one of a few where you can literally work your way up from the bottom.” Michel Roux Jr, chef/owner of acclaimed restaurant Le Gavroche, is one of the many supporters of the project. “Restaurants have been profoundly affected by this crisis. Many won’t make it through this pandemic and even those that do will need to reinvent themselves to some extent,” he warns.
“We’ve seen great resilience from many, but it remains a hugely challenging time and it’s
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crucial that we do what we can to support those in need.
“I’ve worked with Simon and
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