Creative Dance and Theatre Workshop - community arts for learning, personal and social change
Professional development opportunities for dance and theatre practitioners!

1. 'Communicate Freely, Inspire Creativity' - Birmingham Royal Ballet Dance Workshop (Guangzhou)
Venue: Small Studio, Guangdong Modern Dance Company, NO.13 Shui Ying Heng Road, Sha He Ding, Guangzhou
Dates: Monday 05 – Friday 09 January 2009
Time: 10:00 – 16:30
5-9 January 2009, the Cultural and Education Section of the British Consulate-General Guangzhou in partnership with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Guangdong Modern Dance Company and Kapok Theatre will organise a five-day creative dance workshop in Guangzhou. The Workshop will focus on participation, collaboration and inclusive dance practice. Inspired by the ballet Romeo and Juliet, 10 art educators are invited to work collaboratively with an inclusive group of 10 young people to create an original dance piece that will be performed on 8th January at the Small Theatre of Guangdong Modern Dance. Participants will also share their thoughts and experiences of the Workshop, which will be presented by Kapok Theatre through an improvised performance of “Playback Theatre”. Please click here to read more.

2. Creative Dance and Theatre Workshop (Beijing)
Venue: Xinzhi New Civil School & National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing  
Dates: Monday 12 – Friday 16 January 2009
Time: 10:00 – 16:30
The project will focus on participation, collaboration and creative dance and drama practice. It will be inspired by David Bintley’s ballet Beauty and the Beast, which is to be performed at the NCPA in January 2009. Ten teaching artists are invited to work collaboratively with a group of 20 young people aged 7-9 from Xing Zhi New Civil School, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Hua Dan staff to create an original dance and theatre piece that will be performed at the NCPA. Teaching artists will have opportunities to reflect on, analyse and discuss the process used when working in a community environment with groups of people who would not usually access such opportunities. Please click here to read more.

Performing schedule:
Presented by Milky Way Arts & Communications Co. Ltd

<Guangzhou>
Venue: Century Hall, Baiyun International Conventional Centre, Guangzhou
Date: 9, 10 January 2009:  Romeo and Juliet (accompanied by Royal Ballet Sinfonia)
Price: RMB 880, 680, 580, 380, 180, 80
Tickets: 020 87353857, 87049976  www.gdwhp.com

<Beijing>
Tickets: 010 65516930，65516906, 66550000  www.chncpa.org
Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing
Date:
13, 14, 15 January 2009:  Beauty and the Beast (accompanied by Royal Ballet Sinfonia)
16 January 2009:  Royal Ballet Sinfonia Concert
17, 18 January 2009:  Romeo and Juliet (accompanied by Royal Ballet Sinfonia)
Price:
RMB 1280, 1080, 880, 580, 380, 180  (Beauty and the Beast)
RMB 880，680，480，380，280，180  (Royal Ballet Sinfonia Concert)
RMB 1280，1080，880，580，380，180  (Romeo and Juliet)

<Shanghai>
Venue: Grand Theatre, Shanghai
Date:
21 January 2009:  Beauty and the Beast (accompanied by Royal Ballet Sinfonia)
22 January 2009:  Royal Ballet Sinfonia Concert
23, 24 January 2009:  Romeo and Juliet (accompanied by Royal Ballet Sinfonia)
Price: RMB 680, 500, 380, 260, 120
Tickets: 021 62172426, 62173055, 62721976, 62720310  
www.chinasmpc.com
www.shgtheatre.com

Repertoire:

1. Romeo & Juliet

2. Beauty & the Beast

3. Concert by Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Prelude a L’apres-midi d’un faune           Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Piano Concerto No 2 for Piano          Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)             
Soloist: Jonathan Higgins
INTERVAL
The Lark Ascending                    Ralph Vaughan Williams ( 1872 – 1958)   
Violin soloist: Robert Gibbs
Serenade for Strings Op20 in E Minor      Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934)
La Valse                                               Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)

Birmingham Royal Ballet
www.brb.org.uk

• Patron Her Majesty the Queen
• President HRH The Prince of Wales
• Vice-President The Lady Sarah Chatto
• Director David Bintley

50 years since the Royal Charter was first bestowed, BRB is looking forward with renewed vigour and security. Following ten years of applause for David Bintley's creative leadership, the Company now has a wonderful home in the acclaimed new Hippodrome complex, which includes a state-of-the-art theatre, the Jerwood Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Dance Injuries, and the Patrick Centre, a studio theatre for new work. The Company can also boast a new Chief Executive, Christopher Barron, who is presiding over a company now in a renewed position of important financial security.

Birmingham Royal Ballet was formed in 1990, when Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet moved to Birmingham. Everyone connected with the Company proudly celebrates the versatility and flexibility of an organisation that creates challenging new work alongside the classics.

For Bintley, it is standing on the shoulders of giants that allows a view into the future: 'The hallmark of the Royal Ballet Companies has always been a mixing of classical and more avant garde work. I feel very influenced by The Royal Ballet of the 1950s and 60s under Ninette de Valois; she said we must have one foot in the future and one in the past. Today this is crucially important, both nationally and internationally.'

BRB is welcomed enthusiastically around the world. The Company has recently completed successful tours to the USA, Hong Kong and South Africa, and plans to increase its international profile. Barron believes audiences, both at home and overseas, hunger after the classical history of the Company, the startling energy of its new work, and the unique pool of talent it contains, on stage, in the orchestra pit and behind the scenes. The arrival of Elmhurst School for Dance in Edgbaston in 2004 is another crucial plank in the Company’s determination to nurture and retain the best young dancers in the world.

BRB certainly has a devoted and growing audience in Birmingham and beyond.

Royal Ballet Sinfonia

As the most regularly contracted ballet orchestra in the country, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia enjoys a very busy schedule, appearing with Birmingham Royal Ballet in its home town, in London and around the UK, and frequently with The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Overseas touring has taken the orchestra to Greece, India, Yugoslavia, South Africa, Hong Kong and the USA.

The Royal Ballet Sinfonia has appeared with many of the world's other leading ballet companies, including Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Kirov, Norwegian Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Royal Flanders Ballet, Harlem Dance Theatre and Winnepeg Ballet. The orchestra's opera performances include The Royal Opera's acclaimed production of Turandot at Wembley Arena.

Concert performances at the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham's Symphony Hall and other major British venues also form a regular part of the Sinfonia's work. Regular concerts are given around the UK ranging from chamber music evenings, to popular classics, and to Last Night at the Proms type performances with fireworks in the grounds of glorious stately homes. Every year the Orchestra takes the stage at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, in a' An Evening of Music and Dance.' These sell-out performances are presented by famous television and radio celebrities such as Alan Titchmarsh and Brian Kay.

Recording has become a regular feature of the orchestra's life for which they have received much critical acclaim. The Royal Ballet Sinfonia's recordings include video soundtracks to Birmingham Royal Ballet's Nutcracker, Coppélia and Hobson's Choice and CDs of English string music, the Sullivan overtures, the film scores of Richard Addinsell, Far from the Madding Crowd and the Ealing Comedies, which won the 1998 Gramophone Award for best film music.

The number of musicians in the Royal Ballet Sinfonia is often increased to meet the requirements of the score and the theatre in which the performance is taking place.

Chronology

1931
Ninette de Valois founds a company at Sadler's Wells Theatre. It is known as the Vic-Wells Ballet as it performs both at Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Old Vic Theatre in London.

1940
Sadler's Wells Theatre is bombed during the war and consequently the company begins to tour widely throughout the country. At this point the name of the company is changed to the Sadler's Wells Ballet.

1946
The Company is invited to become the resident company of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. De Valois therefore decides to found a second company called Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet at Sadler's Wells Theatre.

1951
Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet undertakes a highly successful tour of the USA.

1955
Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet temporarily loses its link with Sadler's Wells Theatre and bases itself with its sister company at the Royal Opera House.

1956
A Royal Charter is bestowed on both Companies and their joint school. The Sadler's Wells Ballet becomes The Royal Ballet and Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet becomes the Touring Company of The Royal Ballet.

1970
The Touring Company returns to base itself at Sadler's Wells Theatre, while continuing to tour the country.

1977
The Touring Company changes its name to Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, with Peter Wright as Director.

1987
Birmingham Hippodrome and Birmingham City Council invites Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet to re-locate to Birmingham.

1990
Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet moves to a new home in Birmingham and changes its name to Birmingham Royal Ballet.

1995
Peter Wright retires. David Bintley becomes Artistic Director.

1997
Birmingham Royal Ballet becomes independent of the Royal Opera House.

Director David Bintley

David Bintley CBE was born in Huddersfield. From an early age he wanted to dance and he wanted to choreograph. He always had clear and ambitious ideas of what he intended to do, but even he could hardly have imagined that before he reached 40 he would be director of one of the two Royal Ballet Companies and be recognised as one of Britain's finest choreographers, with an international reputation and his ballets performed by companies all round the world.

He trained at the Royal Ballet School towards the end of what we look back on as an outstanding period in the Covent Garden company's history. He saw the dancing of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell. Even more importantly, he saw Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan making some of their masterworks for a superb company, fine-tuned to perform their creations.

In 1976 he joined Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet (now Birmingham Royal Ballet) and quickly proved an outstanding character dancer. Those who were lucky enough to see him dance the leading role in Fokine's Petrushka still regard it as this generation's definitive performance. We shall never know if Vaslav Nijinsky was better, but we do know that Bintley was unforgettable - mesmerising and brilliant. His Alain and then Widow Simone in Ashton's La Fille mal gardée, his Bottom in The Dream, the Ashton 'Ugly Sister' in Cinderella, the Red King in de Valois' Checkmate and the Rake in her Rake's Progress, were just as effectively conceived and exhilaratingly musical too.

He was fortunate to have as his artistic director the wise and far-seeing Peter Wright, who from the first encouraged the young Bintley in his wish to choreograph. Bintley made his first ballet, to Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale, before he was 16. His first professional work, for his Sadler's Wells company, came less than two years later: The Outsider, already dramatic, already showing insight into character and already displaying a stimulating and knowledgeable choice of music in its score by Boháč.

There is a considerable divide in ballet between what can be seen as the American influence, dominated by George Balanchine, and the more British tradition of Ashton, Tudor and MacMillan. Balanchine distrusted narrative, the telling of a story in movement, and tended to distrust decor as well. The British tradition, embedded in a rich theatrical heritage, tends to use ballet as part of narrative, either creating a mood, or showing insight into character and situation and creating innovative dance that illumines both.

Most choreographers fall into one or other of these camps and there can be little doubt that Bintley's allegiance lies firmly on this side of the Atlantic. What made British dance special was that Ashton and then MacMillan found a language that conveyed emotion, was expressive, and told the story in dance terms. This is Bintley's territory too.

In 1982 Bintley took a three-month sabbatical, looking at American and German dance. This undoubtedly extended his imaginative range, but effectively only confirmed his essentially British approach to dance. From 1986 to 1993 he moved from being resident choreographer for Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet to being resident choreographer at Covent Garden. When, in 1993, he left to work freelance, seven different companies round the world immediately commissioned new work from him. In 1995 Bintley was appointed Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

It is Bintley's impressive range as a choreographer that makes him a worthy successor to Ashton and MacMillan. One of his major successes was the full-length Hobson's Choice (1989), a broad comedy, which yet tugs at the heartstrings as Ashton's La Fille mal gardée manages to do. He can edge into pure dance territory, though his dancers always relate to a theme or a mood, as in Consort Lessons (1983), Galanteries (1986), Allegri diversi (1987) or Tombeaux (1993). He has an uncanny ability to imply rather than to state, so that in Flowers of the Forest (1985) he seems to be saying a great deal about war, about patriotism, even about the fall of Empire, without ever making anything explicit or spelling anything out in a laborious or obvious way. He manages this perfectly in the ever-popular 'Still Life' at the Penguin Café; (1988). He can tell a dramatic story with a sure sense of what works in the theatre, as in his full-length works Swan of Tuonela (1982), The Snow Queen (1986), Cyrano (1991), Far from the Madding Crowd (1996) and his superbly successful full-length ballet Edward II (Stuttgart Ballet, 1995), based on Marlowe's play, which has proved even more successful with English audiences that German. His full-length work, Arthur, developed even further his uncanny ability to transform mythology into dance and Cyrano (2007) breathed new life into Rostand's play. He can be serious and spiritual, as in his deelpy felt The Protecting Veil (1998). He is wonderfully, gloriously musical, perhaps the quality he most shares with Ashton, and he can dazzle with the inventiveness of his approach as in his gorgeously pop version of Carmina burana, in which no-one can possibly guess what is coming next and each fresh twist is a new delight. This delight is vividly dramatic, is about believable people in a real world, and yet breathtakingly caught and held in fascinating dance. In the same vein he surpassed himself with his popular hit, The Nutcracker Sweeties, revolutionising the very traditional Nutcracker, using Duke Ellington's jazz version of the score and finding fresh imagery, mingling jazz dance, classical ballet and all the exhibitionism of an American musical. More recently he has enchanted us afresh with The Shakespeare Suite, his witty exploration of love's many guises, with the lyricism and classical perfection of his Les Saisons for The Royal Ballet, his imaginative new interpretation of Beauty and the Beast and his jazz-inspired reinterpretation of the Orpheus legend in The Orpheus Suite.

Bintley is now displaying a set of other qualities. He is proving a fine artistic director. He has assembled an excellent company of dancers, and has an eye for the right dancer in the right role. He has a gift for putting well-balanced programmes together, and his own choreography does not hog the repertory. Watching the Company on stage, audiences know that here is a company confident in themselves and in what they do. And Bintley has received much deserved public recognition for this, most recently in the 2001 Birthday Honours list, in which he was made a CBE. Ballet will survive as an art form just as long as creators of Bintley's calibre want to express their personal vision in terms of dance.