Birmingham Royal Ballet’s summer bill: Apollo – Interlinked – ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café

The triple bill from Birmingham Royal Ballet will be seen at Birmingham Hippodrome from 8 – 10 June 2023 and it is when the company will say farewell to principal dancer Brandon Lawrence who is joining Ballett Zürich for Cathy Marston's first season as Director. Lawrence's last performance with the company will be in David Bintley's ‘Still Life' At The Penguin Café – he joined BRB in 2011.

Bintley's ‘Still Life' at the Penguin Café features a Morris-dancing flea, a ballroom-dancing ram, a hoe-downing rat, a majestic zebra and many more in this witty and entertaining, yet bittersweet and poignant look at humankind's effect on the world. The work was created in 1988 when Bintley was resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet.

George Balanchine's Apollo launched the 24-year-old's lifelong partnership with Igor Stravinsky. Its pared-back elegance lets the company's dancers, and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, to shine.

Young Brazilian choreographer Juliano Nunes's Interlinked premiered in the summer of 2022 as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival. It has a specially composed score by Australian composer Luke Howard, and lighting design from Netherlands-based Northern Irish designer Tom Visser. The abstract piece explores “themes of unity, the influences that we have on each other's lives, and how the energy that we exude bounces from one person to the next, in a never-ending circle”.  The piece is for 16 dancers and explores themes around gender identity and the perception of self.

Apollo – Interlinked – ‘Still Life' at the Penguin Café

8 – 11 June 2023, Birmingham Hippodrome

www.brb.org.uk

Apollo
Choreography George Balanchine
Music Igor Stravinsky
Lighting Peter Tiegen

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

‘Still Life' at the Penguin Café
Choreography Sir David Bintley
Music Simon Jeffes
Designs Hayden Griffin
Lighting John B Read

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.