Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Black Sabbath – The Ballet
Opening in September is Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s new project, Black Sabbath – The Ballet.
I did a double-blink reading that, reminding me of a similar reaction when Maurice Béjart announced his upcoming Ballet For Life with music by Queen and Mozart. After the premiere, I saw it various times – it was an incredibly affecting dance theatre piece. Here the choice of Black Sabbath’s music is not casual.
Black Sabbath forged their unique sound in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s home city, and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia will play orchestrations of well-known Black Sabbath tracks such as Paranoid and Iron Man and new orchestral works inspired by their music.
This is the second of three Birmingham-focused commissions. BRB’s artistic director Carlos Acosta was drawn to both the band’s work and its musical legacy as the originators of Heavy Metal. For this full-evening ballet with three composers, Acosta has chosen three choreographers, led by Pontus Lidberg (whose work has been performed by the Swedish Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet) and composer Chris Austin (whose work includes orchestrating the White Stripes music for Wayne McGregor‘s Chroma) who will work alongside writer Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer, The Opera) to create a “metal symphony” over three acts. Black Sabbath has been closely involved in developing this collaboration.
The press blurb states: “Sparks will undoubtedly fly in this intriguing new response to Black Sabbath’s music and legacy – the first true heavy metal ballet experience.”
Black Sabbath – The Ballet opens at the Birmingham Hippodrome (23 – 30 September) before heading to Plymouth (12-14 October) and London’s Sadler’s Wells (18 – 21 October).
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
