Birmingham Royal Ballet celebrates Sir Peter Wright’s Centenary with Gala Performance
Sir Peter Wright Centenary on 18 June will feature highlights from some of the director and choreographer’s most beloved works, including Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia.
For one night only, Carlos Acosta dances the role of Death in one of Sir Peter’s favourite works, The Green Table, last performed by BRB in the early 1990s.
This June, Birmingham Royal Ballet will mark 100 years of Founding Director Laureate and one of ballet’s most influential directors and choreographers, Sir Peter Wright, with a special gala performance at their home, Birmingham Hippodrome, on Thursday 18 June 2026.
The Company was first established in Birmingham by Sir Peter Wright in 1990, after being known as Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet in London. Firmly establishing BRB’s global reputation, Sir Peter is responsible for some of the most beloved productions in the Company’s repertoire, including The Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia.
The special gala performance on 18 June will begin with a défilé by members of Elmhurst Ballet School. The Birmingham Royal Ballet Company will then present highlights from some of Sir Peter’s most beloved productions, including excerpts from The Sleeping Beauty, including the Act III Polonaise and Grand Pas de Deux, Coppélia‘s Pas de Deux and Franz’s solo from Act III, Giselle‘s Act II Pas de Deux, and highlights from Swan Lake including the Black Swan Pas de Deux.
At Sir Peter’s special request, the evening will conclude with one of his favourite pieces, Kurt Jooss’s 1932 ballet, The Green Table. Last staged for Birmingham Royal Ballet by Sir Peter in the early 1990s, the themes of the futility of war and the failure of political diplomacy remain pertinent in the current political climate. Sir Peter credits Jooss with shaping his understanding of choreography:
Learning that movement for its own sake has no importance, that one must have something to communicate when performing for an audience, and that choreography is as much about ideas as it is about steps.
For the gala performance only, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Director, Carlos Acosta, will dance the role of Death in The Green Table for the very first time in his career.
Acosta said:
There are no words to explain the scale of Sir Peter’s contribution to the heritage, history and legacy of not only Birmingham Royal Ballet, but the art form as a whole. We couldn’t let his 100th year pass us by without celebration, and this very special evening will feature a sample of some of his most cherished productions that have been enjoyed by audiences across the globe since BRB’s beginnings back in 1990.
At Sir Peter’s request, we will also be staging one of his favourite works – The Green Table – to mark the occasion. For the first time in nearly 35 years, it is an honour for BRB to be staging this extraordinarily relevant work. For one night only at the gala performance, I look forward to dancing the role of Death in this brave work.
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 Italian ballerina 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.
