Birmingham Royal Ballet announces its 2022-2023 Season

• WEEK-LONG RESIDENCY AT BIRMINGHAM REPERTORY THEATRE IN MAY
• ​ON YOUR MARKS – SUMMER TRIPLE BILL AT BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME INCLUDING THE WORLD PREMIERE OF A NEW WORK BY JULIANO NUNES
• THE MAGNIFICENT ROYAL BALLET SINFONIA PERFORMS SIDE BY SIDE ON STAGE WITH BRB'S WORLD-CLASS DANCERS AT ROYAL CONCERT HALL NOTTINGHAM
• DON QUIXOTE WILL BE STAGED AT SADLERS WELLS IN JULY
• INTO THE MUSIC – AUTUMN TRIPLE BILL AT BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME INCLUDING WORLD PREMIERE OF HOTEL BY MORGAN RUNACRE-TEMPLE
• COPPÉLIA COMES TO BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME AND PLYMOUTH THEATRE ROYAL THIS AUTUMN
• SWAN LAKE NATIONAL TOUR TO SOUTHAMPTON, BIRMINGHAM, PLYMOUTH, SALFORD, SUNDERLAND AND EDINBURGH IN 2023

c In a big year for the city, the season includes several highlights in Birmingham during the year that it hosts the Commonwealth Games, as well as touring the UK and bringing the new production of Don Quixote to London.

Carlos Acosta said,

Since the start of this year the company has been hard at work preparing for our biggest tour in two years with my Don Quixote, and the pace will not let up this year!

I am so excited to be finally returning to some semblance of normality – though there are still many challenges – and am extremely proud to present this 2022/23 season. It demonstrates BRB's ongoing commitment to the greats of classic canon whilst also featuring work by artists who are new to the company, world premieres and extremely demanding repertoire.

I am also, of course, thrilled that BRB dancers will perform on stage alongside Acosta Danza. We have always been an international company but you will also see that we are performing everything we do in our home city of Birmingham. It's going to be an amazing year for us – and for our audiences too!'

BRB IN RESIDENCE AT THE REP

Once the current tour of Don Quixote concludes, the company goes straight back into rehearsals for Spring/Summer beginning with a return to The Rep for a week-long residency of performances aimed at all ages. Dance Track 25 (Sunday 8 May) celebrates the 25th anniversary of BRB's landmark talent development scheme, with BRB Principals Céline Gittens and Brandon Lawrence hosting performances by Dance Track alumni.

New Dance Now (Tuesday 10 May) is a showcase of new choreographic talent that features new work by young choreographers from the UK's leading ballet companies in an audience vote contest.

An Evening of Music and Dance (Friday 13 & Saturday 14 May) sees BRB's world-class dancers perform ballet repertoire chosen by Director Carlos Acosta, including the Bluebird pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty and the Farewell pas de deux from Kenneth MacMillan's Winter Dreams with live music from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

Discover Dance & Music (Friday 13 – Saturday 14 May) is a magical journey into ballet for everyone ages 4+, with Shireenah Ingram hosting performances from classic ballets to live music from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in an all-round showcase.

Sean Foley, who is the Artistic Director of Birmingham Rep said,

BRB's first return to live performance since the beginning of Covid was at The REP in October 2021 with the World Premiere of Lazuli Sky; BRB and The REP collaborated on a specially adapted seasons of The Nutcracker and Sir David Bintley's Cinderella during ‘20 and ‘21, and our first major co-production was City of A Thousand Trades, co-directed by The REP's Associate Director Madeleine Kludje, which played at The REP and Sadler's Wells during Summer '21. We are delighted to have forged such an exciting and dynamic new artistic relationship with Birmingham Royal Ballet over the last year, and now look forward to welcoming our City partners back to our epic and intimate main stage for a season that celebrates some of the very best new work from this magnificent Company.

ON YOUR MARKS – SUMMER TRIPLE BILL

Birmingham will host the Commonwealth Games this summer and Carlos Acosta is bringing together three works for a triple bill presented as part of Birmingham International Dance Festival 2022. On Your Marks (23 – 25 June) celebrates the expressive energy and gravity-defying athleticism of the company's world-class dancers.

Jorge Crecis created Twelve for Acosta Danza. For the first time ever, dancers from BRB and Acosta Danza will be teaming up to premiere a new version, retitled Twenty-Four. A new work from young Brazilian choreographer Juliano Nunes, whose recent pieces include commissions for Nederlands Dans Theater 2 and Marie-Agnès Gillot will receive its world premiere. To close, an ode to the power of nature and the glory of movement will see Will Tuckett's Lazuli Sky (set to John Adams' Shaker Loops) that premiered to great acclaim in 2020, returns to a Birmingham stage.

DON QUIXOTE

As the UK tour of BRB's new production of Carlos Acosta's Don Quixote begins, BRB has announced that the production will travel to London's Sadler's Wells (6-9 July).

INTO THE MUSIC: AUTUMN TRIPLE BILL

BRB's autumn triple bill celebrates the marriage of music and movement. Two UK premieres bookend a world premiere in a mixed programme curated by Acosta, with each piece set to a major orchestral score performed live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia (Birmingham Hippodrome 21 – 22 October).

Much-missed German choreographer Uwe Scholz worked regularly with classical repertoire and never more dramatically than in his setting of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, a work described by Wagner as ‘the apotheosis of the dance'. Choreographer Morgann Runacre-Temple and composer Mikael Karlsson team up for the world premiere of Ballet Now commission Hotel, a surreal journey into the secrets and lies that live behind closed doors. And to close, Jiří Kylián's Forgotten Land shows why Kylián is one of the most revered choreographers of the 20th century with a gripping journey into memory and loss set to Benjamin Britten's magnificent Sinfonia da Requiem.

NUTCRACKER

Sir Peter Wright's well-known production returns to Birmingham Hippodrome in December 2022 following an extensive rebuild of John Macfarlane's exquisite sets, funded in large part by generous audience support through the Big Give. 

COPPÉLIA

Sir Peter Wright's production will be brought back to the stage by Birmingham Royal Ballet for the first time in five years, with Léo Delibes' score performed live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Coppélia will be performed at the Birmingham Hippodrome and Plymouth Theatre Royal in October.

SWAN LAKE – UK TOUR

BRB's production of Swan Lake will tour to Southampton Mayflower, Birmingham Hippodrome, The Lowry, Salford, Sunderland Empire, Plymouth Theatre Royal and Edinburgh Festival Theatre from January – March 2023 accompanied by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

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LISTINGS INFORMATION

NOTTINGHAM CONCERT HALL

Discover Dance & Music Saturday 7 May, 2.30pm

An Evening of Music & Dance Saturday 7 May, 7.30pm

BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET IN RESIDENCE AT THE REP

Dance Track 25 Sunday 8 May, 2pm & 6pm

New Dance Now Tuesday 10 May, 7.30pm

An Evening of Music & Dance Friday 13 & Saturday 14 May, 7.30pm

Discover Dance & Music Saturday 14 May, 2.30pm

ON YOUR MARKS: SUMMER TRIPLE BILL

Birmingham Hippodrome Thu 23 June: 7.30pm; Fri 24 June: 7.30pm; Sat 25 June: 2.30pm & 7.30pm

​Twenty-Four

Choreography: Jorge Crecis
Music: Vincenzo Lamagna
Costume Design: Eva Escribano
Lighting: Michael Mannion and Warren Letton

New work (title tbc)

Choreography: Juliano Nunes
Music: Luke Howard
Lighting: Tom Visser

Lazuli Sky

Choreography: Will Tuckett
Music: John Adams
Designs: Samuel Wyer, Nina Dunn
Lighting: Peter Teigen

DON QUIXOTE

Sadlers Wells – 6-9 July.

Choreography: Carlos Acosta after Marius Petipa
Music: Ludwig Minkus
Production: Carlos Acosta
Designs: Tim Hatley
Lighting: Peter Mumford

INTO THE MUSIC – AUTUMN TRIPLE BILL

Birmingham Hippodrome Fri 21 Oct: 2pm & 7.30pm (PN); Sat 22 Oct: 2.30pm & 7.30pm

Seventh Symphony

Choreography: Uwe Scholz
Music: Beethoven
Set and Costume Design: Uwe Scholz
Lighting: Marc Parent

Hotel

Choreography: Morgann Runacre-Temple
Composer: Mikael Karlsson
Set and Costume Design: Sami Fendall
Lighting: Christopher Ash

Forgotten Land            

Dance production / choreography: Jiří Kylián
Music: Benjamin Britten: Sinfonia da requiem, Opus 20
Set and costume design: John F. Macfarlane
Lighting: Kees Tjebbes
World premiere: 12 April 1981, Stuttgart Ballet, Stuttgart, Germany

​COPPÉLIA

Theatre Royal Plymouth: 5–8 October 2022

Birmingham Hippodrome 26 – 29 October

Choreography: Marius Petipa, Enrico Cecchetti, Peter Wright
Music: Léo Delibes
Production: Peter Wright
Designs: Peter Farmer
Lighting: Peter Teigen

SWAN LAKE

Southampton Mayflower Theatre: 2–4 February 2023

Birmingham Hippodrome: 15–25 February 2023

The Lowry, Salford: 1–4 March 2023

Sunderland Empire: 9–11 March 2023

Theatre Royal Plymouth: 13–16 March 2023

Edinburgh Festival Theatre: 29 March–1 April 2023

Choreography: Peter Wright, Lev Ivanov, Marius Petipa
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Production: Peter Wright, Galina Samsova
Designs: Philip Prowse
Lighting: Peter Teigen

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.