Carlos Acosta's Classical Selection

BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET

ROYAL BALLET SINFONIA

Director

Carlos Acosta cbe

Chief Executive Officer

Caroline Miller obe

Music Director

Koen Kessels

Founded by Dame Ninette de Valois om, ch Founding Director Laureate of Birmingham Royal Ballet

Sir Peter Wright cbe

Founder Choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton om, ch, cbe

BRB2 presents

Founder Music Director

Constant Lambert

Prima Ballerina Assoluta

Dame Margot Fonteyn

Music Director Laureate

Barry Wordsworth

Carlos Acosta’s Classical Selection

Royal & Derngate Northampton 25 April 2023

Nottingham Theatre Royal 28 & 29 April 2023

New Theatre Peterborough 3 & 4 May 2023

The Linbury Theatre, London 13 & 14 June 2023

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre 24 June 2023

Supported by David and Mary Laing, The Kirby Laing Foundation and The Linbury Trust

Patron The late Queen President The former Prince of Wales Vice-President The Lady Sarah Chatto

Cover: Sofia Liñares as Diana. © Johan Persson.

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WELCOME

A warm welcome to this special performance. We are delighted to be showcasing members of BRB2, our new junior company, through my Classical Selection. I have handpicked a stunning range of classical and contemporary pieces, all very special to me, and many new to Birmingham Royal Ballet’s repertory.

Special thanks go to Kit Holder, BRB First Soloist, who has embraced the role of Artistic Coordinator for our new venture. Alongside members of the Ballet Staff, the BRB2 dancers have been coached by renowned choreographers, including Will Tuckett, and international dance stars, including teacher and former Royal Ballet principal Lesley Collier, former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky and former BRB dancer Isabel McMeekan. Thanks also go to the BRB dancers and staff who have supported these young dancers over the last six months.

This tour has been made possible through generous support from David and Mary Laing, The Kirby Laing Foundation and The Linbury Trust. We thank them and, as always, heartfelt thanks go to all of our supporters.

Following this tour, Birmingham

Royal Ballet has many more exciting performances to entertain you. June sees the return of Sir David Bintley’s beloved ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café in a triple bill alongside George Balanchine’s exquisite Apollo and Juliano Nunes’s striking Interlinked at Birmingham Hippodrome.

Please join our mailing list to receive details of all of our future performances and events, including pre-performance and ballet classes.

I hope you enjoy the performance,

Carlos Acosta cbe Director

Carlos Acosta. © Johan Persson.

Carlos Acosta’s Classical Selection

PART ONE

Rhapsody pas de deux

La Sylphide pas de deux

Swan Lake Act II pas de deux

Dying Swans

Diana and Actaeon pas de deux

PART TWO

End of Time

A Buenos Aires

Je ne Regrette Rien

Les Bourgeois

Carmen pas de deux

Nisi Dominus

Majisimo

Sofia Liñares and Enrique Bejarano Vidal as Diana and Actaeon. © Johan Persson.

Oscar Kempsey-Fagg and Frieda Kaden in Rhapsody. © Johan Persson.

Rhapsody

Pas de deux

Choreography Frederick Ashton

Music Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op.43: Variation No.17, Allegretto; Variation No.18, Andante catabile

(Royal Ballet Sinfonia recording; Conductor: Paul Murphy)

Solo piano Jeanette Wong

Staged by Lesley Collier and Isabel McMeekan

Frederick Ashton created a vast repertory of ballets, including the delightful La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter), The Two Pigeons, The Dream and Dante Sonata. Rhapsody, Ashton’s final work, was created in honour of the late Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, on the occasion of her 80th birthday in 1980.

This non-narrative ballet was created on acclaimed Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and former Royal Ballet Principal Lesley Collier. It is set to Sergei Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which moves from stormy passages to calmer interludes.

Rhapsody is one of over 100 works created by Frederick Ashton (1904–88). The Frederick Ashton Foundation, a registered charity, exists to perpetuate the legacy of Frederick Ashton and his ballets. www.frederickashton.org.uk.

“ Rhapsody is such a beautiful piece and very technical. I love this ballet and have performed it many times but it’s new to BRB. ”

Carlos Acosta

La Sylphide Pas

de deux

Choreography August Bournonville

Music Herman Løvenskiold

(Royal Ballet Sinfonia recording; Conductor: Paul Murphy)

With thanks to Sarasota Ballet for the loan of costumes.

La Sylphide (The Sylph of the Highlands) is Danish choreographer August Bournonville’s most famous ballet. Created in 1836, it is the embodiment of the Romanticism developing in all the arts at the time. It tells the story of James, a young man enticed into the forest by a fairy on his wedding day, but when he tries to embrace her, the Sylphide dies.

Swan Lake

Act II pas de deux

Choreography Carlos Acosta (after Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Peter Wright)

Music Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

(Royal Ballet Sinfonia recording; Conductor: Paul Murphy) Solo violin Robert Gibbs; Solo cello António Novais

Swan Lake is ballet’s greatest love story, danced to Tchaikovsky’s divine score. It tells the story of Prince Siegfried, who chances upon a flock of swans while out hunting. When one of the swans turns into a beautiful woman, Odette, he is enraptured. But she is under a spell that holds her captive, allowing her to regain her human form only at night.

Baron von Rothbart, arbiter of Odette’s curse, tricks the Prince into declaring his love for the identical Odile and thus breaking his vow to Odette. Doomed to remain a swan forever, the only thing that can break the spell is true love and Rothbart will do anything in his power to stop it.

6 Top: Eric Pinto Cata rehearsing La Sylphide; below: Maïlène Katoch and Mason King rehearsing Swan Lake. © Lachlan Monaghan.

Maïlène Katoch and Mason King rehearsing Swan Lake. © Lachlan Monaghan.

Dying Swans

Choreography Carlos Acosta (after Michel Fokine and Michel Descombes)

Music Camille Saint-Saëns The Carnival of the Animals: 13. The Swan

Piano Jeanette Wong; Cello António Novais

Michel Fokine created The Dying Swan in 1907 for the Russian dancer Anna Pavlova. Perhaps the most famous solo in ballet history, it took only a few minutes to create. Set to music by Camille Saint-Saëns from Carnival of the Animals, Fokine partly drew on Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem Le Cygne for inspiration.

This piece consists almost entirely of pas de bourrées, a smooth running step performed entirely en pointe, but Fokine added subtle movements of the arms and upper body which expressed the bird’s struggle for life. The Dying Swan is about the fragility of life and the passion with which we hold on to it. Pavlova’s sheer dramatic intensity forcibly conveyed this truth. For the rest of her life, Pavlova was identified with the ballet, and people saw it almost as a metaphor for her life. As she lay dying, her last words to her dresser were, ‘prepare my Swan costume’.

For this performance Carlos Acosta has reimagined this iconic solo as a duet.

SLEEPING BEAUTY DREAMS

Your chance to dance with Birmingham Royal Ballet!

In early 2024, BRB will present Sir Peter Wright’s sumptuous production of The Sleeping Beauty across the country.

After the huge success of previous Dreams projects, we are delighted that ballet students of all ages from across the West Midlands will have another opportunity to take part in a Sleeping Beauty Dreams performance. Dreams takes place on the Birmingham Hippodrome stage, and participants appear alongside some of the Company’s rising stars who take on the leading roles.

Full details of how to sign up for Sleeping Beauty Dreams will be available soon.

Visit our website at brb.org.uk/Dreams24 to sign up to be sent more information once available.

brb.org.uk/Dreams24

Participants of Swan Lake Dreams with Carlos Acosta. © Paul Telfer.

Diana and Actaeon

Pas de deux

Choreography Agrippina Vaganova after Marius Petipa

Music Cesare Pugni

(Royal Ballet Sinfonia recording; Conductor: Paul Murphy)

This pas de deux is one of the most famous pas de deux in ballet history. It was originally a divertissement from the second act of Petipa’s La Esmeralda, a full-length ballet set to music by Riccardo Drigo and inspired by Victor Hugo’s novel Notre Dame de Paris.

Agrippina Vaganova added her virtuoso Diana and Actaeon pas de deux into her revival of La Esmeralda, which premiered in 1935. Though Diana and Actaeon is based on the myth of the Goddess Diana and the mortal hunter Actaeon, this divertissement bears little relationship to the story and is most notable for the technical virtuosity required of the two dancers performing.

Sofia Liñares and Enrique Bejarano Vidal as Diana and Actaeon. © Johan Persson.

End of Time

Choreography Ben Stevenson

Music Sergei Rachmaninov, Cello Sonata in G Minor Op.19: third movement.

Piano Jeanette Wong; Cello António Novais

The End of Time pas de deux is an elegy for humanity inspired by Stanley Kramer’s 1959 post-apocalyptic film On the Beach, the two figures representing the last two humans left alive after an apocalypse. Rachmaninov’s deeply emotional music suits it perfectly.

It was created in 1984 by British choreographer Ben Stevenson for dancers Li Cunxin and Martha Butler for that year’s Tokyo International Ballet Competition. Stevenson was awarded the gold medal for his creation and the dancers silver medals.

Maïlène Katoch and Mason King. © Johan Persson.

A Buenos Aires

Choreography Gustavo Mollajoli

Music Astor Piazzolla Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

(Performed and composed by Astor Piazzolla courtesy of Sony Music Argentina. Published by Warner Chappell Music.)

Set to music by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla, A Buenos Aires illustrates the spirit of tango and Argentina where Mollajoli is from.

Piazzolla’s work revolutionised the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. An excellent bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with different ensembles.

Je ne Regrette Rien

Choreography Ben Van Cauwenbergh

Music Je ne Regrette Rien performed by Édith Piaf

(Composed by Charles Dumont and Michel Vaucaire, courtesy of Warner Music. Published by Peer Music.)

Taking on Édith Piaf’s song, Je ne Regrette Rien was created in 1998 for Daniela Severian, who performed the piece at the International Ballet Competition in Paris and for which she won the Gold Medal. This work was originally created for the company of the State Theatre in Wiesbaden as part of a French evening called La Vie en rose which premiered in 2003.

Je ne Regrette Rien is performed by kind permission of Ben Van Cauwenbergh.

Carmen

Pas de deux

Choreography Carlos Acosta

Music Rodion Shchedrin after Georges Bizet, Carmen Suite: 7. Second Intermezzo.

(Performed by Russian National Orchestra and Mikhail Pletnev. Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH. Under licence from Universal Music Operations Ltd. Music by Georges Bizet, transcribed for strings and percussion by Rodion Shchedrin. Performances are given by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music.)

With thanks to Acosta Danza for the loan of costumes.

Carlos Acosta created his own adaptation of Bizet and Merimee’s story for The Royal Ballet. In his new version, the story’s universal and timeless themes of jealousy and desire are laid bare in a sparse and powerful setting. In this pas de deux, the passionate and free-spirited Carmen dances with the toreador Escamillo.

Olivia Chang Clarke and Eric Pinto Cata in Carmen. © Johan Persson.

Les Bourgeois

Choreography Ben Van Cauwenbergh

Music Jacques Brel Les Bourgeois

(Performed by Jacques Brel. Courtesy of Universal Music France. Under licence from Universal Music Operations Ltd. Published by Sony/ATV Publishing.)

Les Bourgeois was created in 1993 as a part of the performance Homage to Jacques Brel. This piece has been performed by many dancers for several gala evenings and competitions around the world.

Les Bourgeois is performed by kind permission of Ben Van Cauwenbergh.

Nisi Dominus

Choreography Will Tuckett

Music Claudio Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Vergine, SV 206, 8. Nisi Dominus

(Performed by English Baroque Soloists, His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts, John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir. Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH. Under licence from Universal Music Operations Ltd. publishing in the public domain.)

Staged by Zenaida Yanowsky

Will Tuckett, who created the critically acclaimed Lazuli Sky for Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2020, created Nisi Dominus for an evening celebrating Martha Graham at the Criterion Theatre. This amusing and surreal solo, set to imposing choral music, was created on former Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky who has coached BRB2’s dancers for this role. It is based on a jewellery box opening up to reveal a tiny ballerina.

Nisi Dominus is performed by kind permission of Will Tuckett.

Sofia Liñares and Lucy Waine in Nisi Dominus. © Lachlan Monaghan.

Majisimo

Choreography Jorge Garcia

Music Jules Massenet Le Cid: Ballet Music, arranged by Hans V. Vercauteren

(Royal Ballet Sinfonia recording; Conductor: Paul Murphy)

With thanks to Acosta Danza for the loan of costumes.

Cuban choreographer Jorge Garcia created Majisimo as a virtuoso show piece in a notably Spanish-influenced classical style for the Ballet Nacional de Cuba in 1964.

The title is the superlative version of the Spanish word majo/maja, which means handsome, goodlooking or pretty, so an extremely loose translation might be something like ‘The Most Attractive’ and the choreography certainly lives up to this. Though Majisimo is plotless, the music itself is lifted from Massenet’s 1885 opera, Le Cid. As alms are distributed to the people by the Infanta (one of the main characters), celebratory dancing ensues. The seven dances, each from a different area of Spain, are Castillane, Andalouse, Aragonaise, Aubade, Catalène, Madrilène and Navarraise.

Top: Regan Hutsell; below: Jack Easton, Enrique Bejarano Vidal and Ryan Felix rehearsing Majisimo. © Lachlan Monaghan.

INTRODUCING BRB2

Audiences are being given a rare opportunity to see the dance stars of the future in the new Birmingham Royal Ballet company BRB2. An initiative created by BRB Director Carlos Acosta, BRB2 features talented young dancers who are just embarking on their careers and have been selected from across the globe.

Carlos says the gala programme, Carlos Acosta’s Classical Selection, is both a chance for young dancers to evolve and an opportunity for audiences to see their talent. ‘I have chosen the programme for two main reasons,’ he says. ‘The first is that these works are giving the dancers the possibility to develop their skills by performing works that challenge them in every way – not just technically but also artistically.

‘And secondly, it’s great entertainment as it’s a really good programme for the audience. There is a real range of works, many of which are new to our Company, so there will be plenty for audiences to enjoy.’

Launched in February with BRB First Soloist Kit Holder as Artistic Coordinator, BRB2 seeks out some of the

Diane Parkes in conversation with Carlos Acosta and Kit Holder

“

I was given chances as a young dancer so this is us going out there to give other people the opportunity to have a chance that normally they wouldn’t have ”

Carlos Acosta

“ it’s kind of a greatest hits of ballet. ”

Kit Holder

From left: Mason King, Jack Easton, Maïlène Katoch, Frieda Kaden and Oscar Kempsey-Fagg with Carlos Acosta. © Drew Tommons.

best young ballet graduates from schools around the world to join a two-year performance scheme. Offering opportunities for those dancers to develop their skills, both as part of the main company and with work specifically chosen for BRB2, the programme aims to encourage and promote excellence.

‘The formula of BRB2 is the perfect way to develop dancers,’ says Carlos. ‘Normally when you bring in new dancers to a company it takes longer for them to develop before they can move in the ranks and dance the major roles. With BRB2 they will be covering large-scale productions like The Nutcracker and Swan Lake but on top of that they have a repertory tailor-made for them, so they develop more rapidly. It is a scheme that attracts a lot of talent because they have the best of both worlds.’

In this first year, five are founding members of BRB2 and they are joined by members of BRB. Next year, when the first group graduate, another six will join so that BRB2 has a rolling core of dancers. While some of those graduates may be offered positions with BRB, Carlos says the programme also aims to equip the dancers for topclass companies elsewhere.

‘We have had a lot of interest in the new company from all across the world and have brought in some very talented young dancers. They may not all stay with BRB after the programme but when they are going for auditions elsewhere, when they mention BRB, people will know what that means in terms of classical training and everything else. We are developing them not just for us but for the world so it’s also a way of contributing to other companies. And we are looking around the world for dancers because I want to give dancers from diverse backgrounds a chance.

‘I was given chances as a young dancer so this is us going out there to give other people the opportunity to have a chance that normally they wouldn’t have.’

The tour also sees BRB2 offering new audiences the opportunity to see quality dancing in their local theatres. ‘All the venues we are visiting are great spaces, especially for BRB2. It is important to share what the company is all about to different towns and cities,’ Carlos says, ‘that’s

Top: Frieda Kaden and Jack Easton; below: Olivia Chang Clarke and Eric Pinto Cata rehearsing A Buenos Aires. © Lachlan Monaghan. 17

why we’re here – to send our art everywhere possible. We want to connect with different audiences who perhaps haven’t seen us before and give them an evening of great entertainment.

‘I’m always looking out for new audiences, for new cities and new theatres. We are a touring company, so let’s tour to new places to bring our repertory to new people. It’s an important part of my vision for the company to keep surprising people – to create new works, to develop our dancers and to bring more and more people to watch us perform.’

For Kit, the tour offers audiences a chance to dip into a mix of different dances while ensuring performance is of the highest level. ‘This year the programme consists of a lot of pas de deux and solos and one larger number at the end of the show,’ Kit says. ‘Their work is top-level work, it’s pieces usually danced by Principals, and that means they get coaching as if they were Principal dancers.’

The BRB2 performers have already taken classes with renowned choreographers including Will Tuckett and international dance stars such as teacher and former

‘These BRB2 dancers really are professionals who do virtually everything that the main company do,’ says Kit. ‘They are in training with the Company and then, twice a week, we give them their own class so we can focus on some of the technical aspects of their specific repertoire. That’s a nice mix because when they are in the main Company in class, they are seeing our top professionals doing amazing things and they can learn from them.’

The tour features a host of much-loved works including Rhapsody, Carmen, La Sylphide, Diana and Actaeon pas de deux and an excerpt from Swan Lake. ‘It’s kind of a greatest hits of ballet,’ says Kit. ‘There are some really heavy hitters and there will absolutely be more than one piece that everyone will enjoy. The programme touches those keystone classics, with an excerpt from Swan Lake and a beautiful piece by Frederick Ashton, the central pas de deux from Rhapsody, which also has the stunning music of Rachmaninov’s Paganini. There’s also La Sylphide which is a stunning piece of choreography and music. ‘And in the second half we go slightly more to

Olivia Chang Clarke and Eric Pinto Cata in Carmen. © Johan Persson.

Royal Ballet Principals Lesley Collier and Zenaida Yanowsky.

the contemporary end of ballet. So we have a beautiful pas de deux by Ben Stevenson called End of Time, which is hugely atmospheric, almost hypnotic. There’s some Piazzolla and some chanson with Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel so musically as well as choreographically there is a lot of variety in the show.

‘I’m sure the majority of our audience will have been to a ballet before, but this is a brilliant programme for people who aren’t familiar with ballet because it’s a lot of short numbers with technical fireworks and virtuosity – and some really beautiful dancing.’ Kit says he and BRB2 are determined to bring excellence to the performances. ‘I’m really excited to take these dancers on tour – audiences are going to see really fantastic dancers. In so many ways my job is very easy because they are motivated, energetic and really intelligent in the way they approach their work. They have a lot of work to manage but they are doing brilliantly. Audiences are going to see professional dancers at the early stage of their careers, full of youthful vitality and enthusiasm, and they’re going to get some ‘really virtuoso performances.’

And the two-year programme is investing not just in the dancers in BRB2 but also in the main BRB company and beyond. ‘This project means we will continue to accelerate the development of Birmingham Royal Ballet,” says Kit. ‘The technical and artistic excellence that we aspire to, achieve, and maintain is going to be propelled over time by these dancers feeding into the company. ‘They will go on to have really top-level careers and some will go off and have excellent careers elsewhere and over time that reputation will build and BRB will be recognised as a breeding ground for the world’s best professional dancers. I really think we can achieve that.’

Diane Parkes is a freelance journalist specialising in the arts. A reporter for more than 30 years, she has worked for newspapers, magazines, online and arts organisations locally and nationally.

“ Audiences are going to see professional dancers at the early stage of their careers, full of youthful vitality and enthusiasm, and they’re going to get some really virtuoso performances. ”

Kit Holder

Artists of BRB2. Top: with First Soloist | BRB2 Artistic Coordinator Kit Holder and BRB Principal Céline Gittens. © Lachlan Monaghan.

Maïlène Katoch and Mason King in End of Time. © Johan Persson.

BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET AND THE ROYAL BALLET SINFONIA

Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the world’s great companies, a true powerhouse of classic ballet and contemporary dance.

We’re proudly rooted in Birmingham, our home since 1990, and we cherish our connections with the diverse people of our city. At the same time, we tour around the UK and internationally, bringing world-class ballet and live music to the widest range of audiences in our nation and beyond.

We perform everything from grand Romantic ballets to breathtaking new dance works inspired by our world today – including many pieces created just for us by the world’s best established and emerging choreographers.

We’re bringing new life to the greatest ballet traditions –but under the leadership of Carlos Acosta, our Director, we’re also pushing the art form in electrifying new directions, underpinned by the artistry, creativity and technical excellence for which we’re known around the world.

We can trace our origins back to 1931 when Dame Ninette de Valois founded the Vic-Wells Ballet – a precursor to BRB, established under the great Sir Peter Wright in 1990. But while we’re proud of our history, we’re also passionately committed to the future of ballet – and we’re doing our best to leave it in good hands. Our inclusive learning and engagement programmes are helping to nurture a new generation of young dancers, making sure they can take forward our great art form through the years and decades to come.

Under current Music Director Koen Kessels, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia is Britain’s busiest ballet orchestra, playing for Birmingham Royal Ballet’s wide-ranging programme in the UK and abroad.

As well as playing for us, the Sinfonia plays for The Royal Ballet and has a long tradition of playing for tours by the world’s leading ballet companies, including Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and The Australian Ballet. They have also performed with Het Nationale Ballet, Queensland Ballet and Acosta Danza.

Regular performances of An Evening of Music and Dance play to a sell-out audiences, and the orchestra has an extensive library of recordings on CD and DVD. Highlights include DVD performances of Cinderella, Hobson’s Choice, The Nutcracker and Coppélia. CDs include the Sullivan overtures, Addinsell film scores, the ballets Far from the Madding Crowd, Edward II and Cyrano, and three tribute CDs of ballet scores written for Ashton and de Valois.

Schemes for the development of young orchestral musicians are in place with the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and for the development of young conductors in the dance world, including the Constant Lambert Conducting Fellowship in partnership with The Royal Ballet. Several players also work with the Company’s Learning Engagement, Access and Participation team in projects around the country.

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s repertory is recorded in Benesh Movement Notation by qualified Benesh Choreologists trained by Benesh International at the Royal Academy of Dance, London.

Born in Havana in 1973, Carlos trained at The National Ballet School of Havana in Cuba. After winning a succession of awards, including the 1990 Prix De Lausanne, he went on to dance professionally with the world’s most prestigious companies, with London’s Royal Ballet becoming his home. Carlos retired from classical ballet in 2016, after 28 years, having performed almost every classical role from Spartacus to Romeo.

Carlos created many award-winning shows throughout his ballet career including Tocororo, and Carlos Acosta and Friends of the Royal Ballet. He also choreographed the Royal Ballet productions of Don Quixote and Carmen, plus the latest Guys and Dolls production for the West End. He has also written two books, including a work of fiction Pig’s Foot, and his honest and heartfelt autobiography No Way Home.

Yuli, a film inspired by his life, premiered at the San Sebastian, Havana and Berlin Film Festivals to critical acclaim before its premiere and general release in April 2019.

The culture and history of Carlos’s homeland have been important influences throughout his career and will continue to be so following his establishment of his own dance company – Acosta Danza – in 2016.

The company tours the world with its vibrant combination of classical and contemporary, fused with Cuban elements of dance. In 2017 Carlos opened his first Dance Academy through the Carlos Acosta International Dance Foundation. The Foundation gives young dancers the same opportunities that he himself benefited from, by providing a three-year dance training programme, free at the point of delivery in an inspirational setting.

Carlos’s extraordinary contribution to dance continues to this day and he was recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2014 when he was awarded a CBE. In 2018 Carlos received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award from The Royal Academy of Dance in recognition of his standing as one of the most influential figures in dance today and in 2019 the Critics’ Circle bestowed Carlos with their Annual Award for Outstanding Services to the Arts.

In January 2020 Carlos became Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

His athleticism, the sheer joy of dancing as well as his tremendous ability to convey emotion, inspired a generation of dancers across the globe. His very touching story and the obstacles he has overcome speak for themselves.

Carlos Acosta. © Johan Persson.

DOMINIC ANTONUCCI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Born in Athens, Ohio, and brought up in Akron, Dominic Antonucci, Assistant Director, attended the Nan Klinger School of Dance and the School of American Ballet. He performed with American Ballet Theatre from 1991 to 1994, joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1994 as a Soloist and was promoted to Principal in 2003. He was appointed to Ballet Master in 2009. Dominic danced all of the leading male repertoire and was particularly prominent in the ballets of Sir Peter Wright and Sir David Bintley. Notable roles included Siegfried in

KOEN KESSELS MUSIC DIRECTOR

including NYCB, La Monnaie, Brussels, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Dutch National Ballet, Vienna State Opera, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Real, Madrid, Opera Vlaanderen, New National Theatre, Tokyo, Kungliga Operan Stockholm and La Scala Milano.

Swan Lake, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Brazilian Woolly Monkey in ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café and Beast in Beauty and the Beast. He has staged Sir David Bintley’s Take 5 on the National Ballet of Japan as well as teaching and rehearsing that company in Ashton’s Cinderella. Away from the studio, Dominic is a regular contributor to The Dancing Times. He was appointed Assistant Director in 2021.

Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet since 2010, he has also been Music Director of The Royal Ballet since September 2015. He made his Royal Ballet debut in 2008 conducting The Nutcracker, and has since conducted such repertory as Giselle, Symphony in C, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, and the world premieres of Raven Girl, Woolf Works, Runner, Strapless, Untouchable, Frankenstein, Flight Pattern and Symphonic Dances He appears regularly with Paris Opéra and has conducted for companies

His ballet repertory includes Le Parc, Coppélia, La Source, Sylvia, Proust, Cinderella, Hurlevent, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins, Giselle, Bolero, La Valse, Suite en Blanc, L’Arlésienne, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Apollo, Les Noces, Prodigal Son, Jewels, Romeo and Juliet, Carmina burana, The Prince of the Pagodas, The Tempest (Sally Beamish), Don Quixote and Les Sylphides. DVD releases include Proust, Cinderella, Coppélia, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins and La Petite Danseuse with Paris Opéra Ballet, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Frankenstein with The Royal Ballet, and Cinderella with Birmingham Royal Ballet. Opera

repertory includes Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin (Antwerp Opera), Glass’s Satyagraha (Cherkaoui), Hosokawa’s Hanjo (Anne Teresa De Keerssmaeker), Lens and Cave’s Shell Shock (Cherkaoui; La Monnaie, Brussels), and operas by Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini, Britten and Maxwell Davies among others.

Kessels is an honorary professor of the University of Birmingham, Artistic Director of Inspiratum and on the artistic direction team at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. As Artistic Director of HERMESensemble he has collaborated with such composers as Abrahamsen, Bartholomée, Benjamin, Brewaeys, Ferrari, Henderickx, Hosokawa, Van Hove, Zev Gordon, Dusapin, Huber, Maresz, Murail, Pagh-Paan, Reich, Van Parys, Saariaho, Talbot, Turnage and Yared. Koen Kessels studied at the Antwerp Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music.

Born in Leamington Spa, Kit trained with with Audrey Roper in Sutton Coldfield and at The Royal Ballet School. He joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2000, becoming a First Soloist in 2019. His repertory with the Company includes Don Quixote (Sancho Panzo, Gamache), Edward II (Warwick, Lancaster), La Fille mal gardée (Widow Simone, Alain), Giselle (Hilarion), The Nutcracker (many roles, including Drosselmeyer), 24, Carmina burana (Seminarian), The Dream (Bottom), Enigma Variations (Hew David Steuart Powell), In the Upper Room, Nine Sinatra

Songs, Radio and Juliet, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café (Brazilian Woolly Monkey).

Kit is also a choreographer and his works include Small Worlds, Printer Jam, 9–5, Quatrain, Tsfasmaniana, Seasons in our World (Winter) for BRB and Stems for The Royal Ballet’s International Draft Works; ballets for Elmhurst Ballet School, Ballet Central and Ballet Black, and Wolves Are People Too, an independent project in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Yvette Knight as the Fairy Godmother in Sir David Bintley’s Cinderella © Johan Persson

DANCERS

For these inaugural performances, the five members of BRB2 will be joined my guest dancers from Birmingham Royal Ballet

JACK EASTON

Born: Miami, Florida

Trained: The Royal Ballet School

Joined: 2022

Repertory: The Nutcracker (Russian Dance), Swan Lake (Spanish Dance, Prince’s Companion) and Don Quixote with Birmingham Royal Ballet as a student.

Awards: Lynn Seymour Award 2020, Gailene Stock Award 2021. Dance heroine: Sylvie Guillem because she is the definition of effortless, yet she is so powerful. She also has a strong sense of self which inspires me to be that way.

MAÏLÈNE KATOCH

Born: Paris

Trained: Paris Opéra Ballet School

Joined: 2022

Other companies: Paris Opéra Ballet (2021/2022 season)

Dream role: I would love to dance Odette/ Odile in Swan Lake because I find it interesting to be able to interpret an ethereal and delicate swan and then a mischievous swan.

Repertory: The Nutcracker (Mirliton), Swan Lake (Cygnet).

MASON KING

Born: Ascot, England and grew up in New Zealand

Trained: Chilton Ballet Academy, Scholar and Associate of The New Zealand School of Dance, and The Royal Ballet School.

Joined: 2022

Repertory: The Nutcracker (Rat King, Spanish Dance), Swan Lake (Prince’s Companion), Don Quixote with BRB as a student and Romeo and Juliet, Giselle and The Nutcracker with The Royal Ballet as a student.

FRIEDA KADEN

Born: Berlin

Trained: Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin, and The Royal Ballet School

Joined: 2022

Awards: Nadia Nerina Scholarship (2019), First place in Lynn Seymour Award for Expressive Dance (2020) and Dance Association Award 2021.

Repertory: The Nutcracker (Mirliton), The Nutcracker with Berlin State Ballet; The Nutcracker and Giselle with The Royal Ballet and in various galas around the world, including in Moscow and Mexico.

OSCAR KEMPSEY-FAGG

Born: Birmingham

Trained: I began my training with Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Dance Track programme and then studied as a Royal Ballet Junior Associate, The Royal Ballet and at Elmhurst Ballet School.

Joined: 2022

Repertory: The Nutcracker (Spanish Dance), Swan Lake (Prince’s Companion), Don Quixote with Birmingham Royal Ballet as a student.

ENRIQUE BEJARANO VIDAL

ARTIST

Born: Guadalajara, Mexico

Trained: National Ballet School of Cuba, Academie Princesse Grace

Joined: 2021

Awards: Gold Medal (Youth American Grand Prix finals in New York 2018); Gold Medal (international competition of Mexico 2011); award at Gala de Danza as Promising Artist, 2018.

Repertory: Don Quixote (Amour), The Nutcracker (Prince, Jackin-the Box, Magician’s Assistant, Russian and Chinese Dances), Romeo and Juliet (Benvolio, Mandolin Dance), Interlinked.

RYAN FELIX ARTIST

Born: Stourbridge

Trained: Elmhurst Ballet School

Joined: 2019; Artist 2021

Awards: Bronze Medal, Genée International Ballet Competition, 2017; Ballet Finalist, BBC Young Dancer, 2017.

Repertory: Cinderella (Prince’s Friends), Don Quixote (Fandango couple), The Nutcracker (Magician’s Assistant, Russian, Chinese and Spanish Dances), Romeo and Juliet (Mandolin Dance lead), Swan Lake (Czárdás, Mazurka).

Created roles: Roles in Will Tuckett’s Lazuli Sky and Daniela Cardim’s Imminent.

MOMOKO HIRATA PRINCIPAL

Born: Gunma, Japan

Trained: Reiko Yamamoto Ballet School and The Royal Ballet School

Joined: 2003; Principal, 2013

Repertory: Cinderella (title role, Spring), Coppélia (Swanilda), Don Quixote (Kitri), La Fille mal gardée (Lise), The Nutcracker (Sugar Plum Fairy, Rose Fairy), Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), Serenade (leading role), The Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora), Swan Lake (Odette/ Odile), Sylvia (title role), Theme and Variations (lead couple), Apollo, Agon, Concerto (first movement), The Dream (Titania), Grosse Fuge, In the Upper Room, Mozartiana

RIKU ITO SOLOIST

Born: Yokohama, Japan

Trained: Yumi Kitamori Ballet Studio

and the School of the Hamburg Ballet

Joined: 2022

Other companies: Northern Ballet (2014 -22)

Repertory: Coppélia (Call to Arms), The Nutcracker (Prince), Swan Lake (Benno).

Created roles with Northern Ballet: David Nixon’s Dracula (Old Dracula), Kenneth Tindal’s Geisha (Takeda male lead role) and I am Mer-Lin a short digital film/ballet by Charlotte Edmonds.

OLIVIA CHANG CLARKE APPRENTICE

Born: London

Trained: Elmhurst Ballet School

Joined: 2022

My most enjoyable experience on stage: When I took part in the BBC Young Dancer Final. I was able to show my choreographic and dancing abilities on television. I will always cherish the experience.

Dream role: Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. I find it very inspiring when a dancer can change character so dramatically.

Repertory: The Nutcracker (Mirliton), Swan Lake (Cygnet).

HAOLIANG FENG FIRST ARTIST

Born: China

Trained: Beijing Dance Academy and The Royal Ballet School

Joined: 2017; First Artist, 2021

Awards: Silver, Youth American Grand Prix, 2014; Gold, Vienna International Ballet Competition, 2014; Bronze, Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition, 2019.

Repertory: Aladdin (Gold, Silver), Don Quixote (Espada), The Nutcracker (Prince), Romeo and Juliet (Benvolio), The Sleeping Beauty (Cavalier, pas de quatre), Swan Lake (Benno), Chacona, Lazuli Sky.

REGAN HUTSELL ARTIST

Born: Houston, Texas

Trained: Feijoo Ballet School, Texas

Joined: 2021

Other companies: The Radio City

Rockettes, Bay Area Houston Ballet and Theatre, Festival Ballet Providence, Guest Artist with Houston Contemporary Dance Company.

Awards: Dance Open America – Gold Medalist in Classical and Contemporary (2021); American Ballet Competition – Gold Medallist in Classical and Contemporary (2019); YAGP finalist. Favourite full-length ballet: Don Quixote. There is so much energy and passion from the plot, as well as the vivacious score.

SOFIA LIÑARES ARTIST

Born: A Coruña, Spain

Trained: Conservatorio de Danza de A Coruña and The Royal Ballet School

Joined: 2020

Repertory: Don Quixote (Mercedes), The Nutcracker (Clara, Rose Fairy, Spanish Dance), Romeo and Juliet (Juliet’s friends), City of a Thousand Trades, Interlinked, 24, Javier De Frutos’s film The Burning Building.

Favourite one-act ballet: Elite Syncopations is such a joyful and playful piece. I could watch it all day.

AVA MAY LLEWELLYN ARTIST

Born: Bristol

Trained: The Royal Ballet School

Joined: 2023

Other companies: The Royal Ballet as a student and as an Aud Jebsen Young

Dancer (2021 to 2023) and The Nutcracker with Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2019

Career if not a dancer I also love singing and acting so I probably would have become a Musical Theatre performer.

Proudest off-stage achievement I was privileged to be Head Girl at the Royal Ballet School, White Lodge.

ERIC PINTO CATA ARTIST

Born: London

Trained: The Royal Ballet School

Joined: 2021

Awards: Valerie Adams Award (2018), Lynn Seymour Award (2019); Gailene Stock Award (2020) – all Royal Ballet School.

Repertory: Don Quixote (Matador), The Nutcracker (Jack-inthe-box, Russian Dance), Romeo and Juliet (Mandolin Dance), City of a Thousand Trades, Interlinked, Lazuli Sky.

Proudest on-stage moment: Performing Didy Veldman’s Is To Be at the 2020 Youth Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Lausanne.

RACHELE PIZZILLO FIRST ARTIST

Born: Palermo, Italy

Trained: The Royal Ballet School

Joined: 2015; First Artist, 2021

Repertory: Don Quixote (Kitri’s friend), Giselle, The Nutcracker (Clara, Spanish Dance, Columbine), Romeo and Juliet (Juliet’s friends), The Sleeping Beauty (Fairy of Modesty), Swan Lake, Chacona, Concerto, Lazuli Sky, ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café.

Dream role: The lead in Romeo and Juliet. I particularly love the music, story and especially her character for the strong emotions you need to be able to express throughout the ballet.

LUCY WAINE ARTIST

Born: Cheltenham

Trained: The Royal Ballet School

Awards: Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers

Award, Royal Ballet School 2020

Joined: 2020

Ballet heroine: Darcey Bussell – she defined ballet within her career and was a key developer in the progression of athleticism paired with elegance which can be found in ballet dancers of today.

Repertory: Don Quixote (Queen of the Dryads), The Nutcracker (Snow Fairy), Romeo and Juliet (Rosaline), Swan Lake, City of a Thousand Trades.

Proud supporters of BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET

BALLET UNWRAPPED

‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café

An exciting Creative Dance and Cross-Curricular project for Key Stages 2, 3 & 4, based on Sir David Bintley’s poignant ballet featuring a colourful host of endangered animals.

Our Ballet Unwrapped initiative offers dance, live music and cross-curricular projects, and includes a CPD package to give you, the teacher, the skills to deliver all the content.

An artist and pianist will visit your school to deliver creative workshops and a box, containing a range of resources including a DVD, costumes, dance workshop resources sheets and much more, will be delivered for you to unwrap!

HOW TO APPLY

Please contact Jenny Murphy, Freelance Project Manager Email Jennymurphy374@hotmail.com Mobile 07968 596 350

brb.org.uk/BalletUnwrapped

Ballet Unwrapped The Nutcracker

Also available to book now!

Step into one of the most magical Christmas stories with Birmingham Royal Ballet. brb.org.uk/BalletUnwrapped

CHOREOGRAPHERS

FREDERICK ASHTON

Ashton was born in Ecuador in 1904 and brought up in Peru. It was there he first saw Anna Pavlova perform and decided on a career in dance. Having come to England, he studied with Léonide Massine and then with Marie Rambert who convinced him of his potential as a choreographer. He was appointed Chief Choreographer of the Vic-Wells Ballet in 1935, a position he was to hold, in various guises, for 35 years. He was made Associate Director of The Royal Ballet in 1952 and Director ten years later. Throughout this time, he created ballets that range from Façade (1931) through La Fille mal gardée (1960) and The Two Pigeons (1961), The Dream, Monotones and Enigma Variations, which were all premiered in the late 1960s. He retired in 1970 but continued to choreograph for another ten years, creating his last work, Rhapsody, in 1980. He died in Sussex in 1988, aged 84.

MICHEL FOKINE

Born in St Petersburg in 1880, he trained at the Imperial Ballet Academy and joined the Mariinsky Theatre. His first choreographic work was Acis and Galatea for a pupils’ performance. Fokine was engaged by Diaghilev for his 1909 Paris season and created Le Pavillon d’Armide, Polovtsian Dances, Les Sylphides and Cléopâtre. He worked for some time for both the Imperial Theatre and for Diaghilev; he did not return to Russia after 1918. For Diaghilev his works include Le Carnaval, Sheherazade, Firebird, Le Spectre de la rose, Narcisse, Petrushka, Papillons and The Golden Cockerel. When he left Diaghilev’s company he worked as a freelance choreographer, creating new works and reviving his successes. He died in 1942.

GUSTAVO MOLLAJOLI

Born in Argentina, Mollajoli trained in Buenos Aires and Paris before being invited by Antony Tudor to be part of the Colon Theater Ballet Company of Buenos Aires, where he remained until his retirement as a dancer in 1980. As an international Étoile he danced across the Americas and Europe with companies including, Ballet do Rio de Janeiro, Lyon Opéra Ballet and Dallas Ballet, where he partnered Dame Margot Fonteyn and later succeeded George Skibine as Artistic Director. He has led both the Colon Theater Ballet Company and the Municipal Ballet Company in Rio de Janeiro as Artistic Director, where he created many new ballets including: Suite Porteña and A Buenos Aires, as well as restaging many classical works including Giselle, Coppélia and Swan Lake. He is currently Artistic Director of the Argentine Theater Ballet Company in Buenos Aires.

AUGUST BOURNONVILLE

Born in 1805 in Copenhagen, Bournonville founded the Danish ballet tradition. Trained in the French technique, he went on to lead the ballet at Copenhagen’s Royal Theatre, where he succeeded his father as Director, and where he created a Danish style and repertory with a cachet which has stood the test of time and become an integral part of Denmark’s literary and musical heritage. He became the embodiment of the Danish ‘Golden Age’, counting poets and artists such as Hans Christian Andersen and Bertel Thorvaldsen among his contemporaries and personal friends. He built up a repertory of more than 50 ballets, of which 12 ballets and minor divertissements have survived to this day.

JORGE GARCIA

Born in Cuba he began his professional dance career at the Ballet Nacional de Cuba under the direction of Fernando and Alicia Alonso. Simultaneously, he was trained as a dance teacher by professional masters from the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets; he also studied acting and staging. In 1964, he created his first ballets for the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Based in Europe since 1966, he subsequently worked with Marseille Opéra Ballet, was the Principal Dancer at the Lyon Opera Ballet, then Principal Dancer, Ballet Master and Choreographer at the Ballet of Wallonie, Ballet Master and Choreographer at the Balletto del Teatro La Fenice, the Nouveau Ballet de Marseillle Opéra and Ballet Gulbenkian. He died in 2022.

BEN STEVENSON

Ben Stevenson, was born in Portsmouth and trained at the Arts and Educational School in London. He appeared with The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet where, as a principal dancer, he performed lead roles in all the classics. Awards for his choreography, include three gold medals at the International Ballet Competitions. For his contributions to international dance, Stevenson was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. In April 2000, he was presented with the Dance Magazine Award. In 2018, he was acknowledged by the Chinese government as one of the most influential Foreign Experts in the past 40 years since China initiated its policy on Reform and Opening Up. Stevenson assumed the artistic directorship of Texas Ballet Theater in 2003. In 2022 he was named Artistic Director Laureate in recognition of his lengthy tenure. Previously he was artistic director of Houston Ballet (1976-2003), elevating the company from a regional troupe to an internationally acclaimed ensemble.

WILL TUCKETT

As well as choreographing and performing for The Royal Ballet for over 25 years, Tuckett is an award-winning, internationally renowned director and choreographer, working in Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan and China. He has directed and choreographed in theatre, opera, musical theatre and film, including work for The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, National Ballet of China, Texas Ballet Theatre, Sarasota Ballet, The Royal Opera, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera, Bregenz Festspiele, Sadler’s Wells, Barbican, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe, Almeida Theatre, PARCO Tokyo, New National Theatre Tokyo, Sage Gateshead, Whitechapel Gallery, Tate Modern, The National Gallery, the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky Arts.

BEN VAN CAUWENBERGH

Ben is Ballet Director at Aalto Theatre, Essen. He is the son of dancer Anna Brabants and trained at the Royal Ballet School, Antwerp. From 1976 to 1977, he was a dancer with the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Thereafter, with the London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) until 1984, where he collaborated with Rudolf Nureyev in many productions. From 1984 until 1987, he returned as a Soloist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, and between 1987 and 1992, he danced as a Soloist in the theatres in Bern and Lucerne. Between 1992 and 2007, he led the ballet ensemble of the Hessische Staatstheater Wiesbaden as ballet director. Since 2008, he has been working at the Aalto Theatre and has held the role of Ballet Intendant. Van Cauwenbergh received the gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne in Lausanne. In 1984, he was declared ‘Dancer of the Year’ by Dance and Dancers Magazine.

TECHNICAL CREDITS

Lighting Johnny Westall-Eyre

Sound Canalside Audio

Costume Supervisor Elaine Garlick

Costume makers Sasha Keir, Phil Reynolds, Debbie Boyd, Birmingham Royal Ballet Costume department

Hair and Make-up support Lizzie McQuire

Recorded Music Licensing Services Musicalities Ltd

AGRIPPINA VAGANOVA

Born in St. Petersburg in 1879, Vaganova was trained at the Imperial School and entered the company in 1897. Her many roles included Odette/Odile (Swan Lake), the Mazurka (Chopiniana), Tsar-Maiden (The Little Humpbacked Horse); she created the role of the Chinese Doll in Fairy Doll (1903). She was director of the Mariinsky Ballet from 1931 to 1937, and later of the school which was renamed the Vaganova Academy in her honour. The method she developed is today the basis of both the Mariinsky school and company and many ballet companies around the world. Her most important choreography, which demonstrated the strength of her teaching style, was Swan Lake (1933) and La Esmeralda (1935), particularly the virtuoso pas de deux in Act II, Diana and Actaeon.

PETER WRIGHT

Peter Wright made his dancing debut with the Ballets Jooss during World War II and worked with companies including Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet, for which he created his first ballet, A Blue Rose, in 1957. In 1959 he was appointed Ballet Master to the Sadler’s Wells Opera and teacher at The Royal Ballet School. In 1961 he went to Stuttgart as a teacher and ballet master to the company being formed by John Cranko. There he mounted his first production of Giselle, which he has subsequently produced for BRB and many international companies. His other interpretations of the classics include The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia and Swan Lake. In 1977 he was appointed Director of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, taking the Company to Birmingham in 1990 when it became Birmingham Royal Ballet. On his retirement in 1995 he was made Director Laureate of the Company and in 2022 he was made Founding Director Laureate.

INTERLUDE MUSIC

Jules Massenet: Suite No. 4, Scenes pittoresques: II. Air de ballet

Performed by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra & Jean-Yves Ossonce (conductor). Licensed courtesy of Naxos Music UK.

Jules Massenet: Suite No. 4, Scenes pittoresques: III. Angelus’

Performed by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra & Jean-Yves Ossonce (conductor). Licensed courtesy of Naxos Music UK.

PAUL MURPHY PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR

Paul Murphy studied conducting at the Royal Academy of Music. He joined the Company in 1992 and was appointed Principal Conductor in 1997. He has been a guest conductor with The Royal Ballet since 1994 and conductor of The Royal Ballet School Annual Performance since 2005. He has also conducted for New York City Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Australian Ballet, BalletBoyz, NDT 1, Acosta Danza, Finnish National Ballet and Tokyo Ballet at La Scala, Milan. He has been a regular guest conductor with the National Ballet of Japan since 2008 and made his debut with the Sarasota Ballet in March 2022 conducting the world premiere of David Bintley’s A Comedy of Errors. Away from the theatre, he has guest conducted the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Hallé, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, Manchester Camerata, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has made numerous recordings for BBC television and radio, and discs for labels such as Naxos, ASV and Opus Arte.

ROBERT GIBBS LEADER

Robert Gibbs studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music, where he won the Tagore Gold Medal. He joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1994 as co-leader, taking over as leader in 1998 from Yuri Torchinsky. He is also leader of the London Festival Orchestra and has often guest-led for the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, New Queen’s Hall Orchestra and several orchestras in Japan. He has also led Nederlands Ballet Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic. He has played as Soloist throughout the UK, Europe, Latin America and the Far East, with recent concerto performances in Russia and China. On many occasions he has been Soloist for Birmingham Royal Ballet and visiting companies with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. His recordings include the violin and piano works of Bax, Goossens and W.H. Reed, and chamber music by Korngold, Rawsthorne, Mozart and Brahms

JEANETTE WONG HEAD OF PIANO

Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Jeanette obtained her First-Class Honours and Master’s Degree with Distinction under Malcolm Wilson at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She was awarded the RBC Honorary Membership in 2009 (HonRBC) for her outstanding contribution to her profession. She then studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, under András Kemenes, after winning the Joseph Weingarten Scholarship. She was a full-time pianist at the Elmhurst Ballet School for six years before joining Birmingham Royal Ballet. In 2014, she was the dance pianist for Eugene Onegin at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. She also sings with the award-winning CBSO Chorus.

ANTÓNIO NOVAIS PRINCIPAL CELLO

António joined the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in 2017 as Sub-Principal Cellist. He is based in Berlin and enjoys a career in chamber and orchestral music. He guests with many orchestras, including Orchestra of the Opera North, Ulster Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, Remix Ensemble Casa da Música and Orquestra XXI. An avid chamber musician, António joined the prize-winning Artesian Quartet in 2012. The Artesian Quartet (which became Park Lane Group Artists in 2014) were awarded a Mentorship Scheme by Chamber Studio in Kings Place, a Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music and Making Music Select Artists 2019-20. António studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Professor David Strange and was awarded the Leverhulme Mentorship for achievement in orchestral playing. His studies were kindly supported by scholarships from GDA and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in Portugal. Portuguese born, António started playing the cello in 2001. Before moving to London, he studied with Vanessa Pires, Filipe Quaresma and Rogério Peixinho. António plays a cello by Edgar Russ, Cremona, 2016.

GET CLOSER: BECOME A SUPPORTER

Becoming part of our Dancers’ Circle or BRB Friends is a hugely rewarding and engaging way to support the work of Birmingham Royal Ballet. Your support will help us deliver our extraordinary work, on stage and in communities, and will help ensure the future success of the Company.

As a thank you we offer our supporters a programme of benefits that include:

• Priority booking or a concierge-style ticket booking service*

• Exclusive online events

• Invitations to rehearsals, insight events and pre-show receptions*

• Our annual supporters’ magazine

• Regular e-newsletters

* Dependent on level of support

© @dancers_eye

For more information and to become a Supporter visit brb.org.uk/Support

Céline Gittens in rehearsal.

BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET

Director

Carlos Acosta cbe

Assistant Director

Dominic Antonucci

Chief Executive Officer

Caroline Miller obe

Music Director and Conductor

Koen Kessels

Board of Directors

Sir David Normington gcb

Chair

Barry Allen

Marverine Cole

Anthony Coombs

Michael Elliott

Jane Hackett

Shireenah Ingram

Jeanetta Laurence obe

Sandra Madgwick

Christine Ondimu

Hemma Patel

Deborah Spence

Ian Squires

Anna Williams fca, dch a Company Secretary

Olga David

Board & Governance Assistant

Governors: Royal Ballet Companies and School

Dame Sue Owen Chair

Leanne Benjamin am obe Vice-Chair

Sir Matthew Bourne obe

Anne Bulford cbe

Hilary S. Carty obe

Lady Deighton

Sir Lloyd Dorfman cvo cbe

Sir Nicholas Hytner

Jeanetta Laurence obe

Isabel McMeekan

Sir David Normington gcb

Derek Purnell

Sir Luke Ritter cbe

Christopher Rodrigues cbe

Lindsay Tomlinson obe

Jacqueline Mistry

Honorary Secretary

BALLET STAFF

Senior Répétiteur

Michael O’Hare

Répétiteur

Carmen Piqueras

Guest Répétiteur

Marion Tait

Benesh Choreologist / Video Archivist

Patricia Tierney

Assistant Répétiteurs

Rory Mackay Rehabilitation Coach

Jonatha n Payn

Artistic Enrichment O fficer

DANCERS

Principals

Tzu-Chao Chou

Mathias Dingman

Samara Downs

Céline Gittens

Momoko Hirata

Brandon Lawrence

Miki Mizutani

César Morales

Yaoqian Shang

Tyrone Singleton

Principal Character Artists

Rory Mackay

Jonathan Payn

First Soloists

Kit Holder

BR B2 Artistic Co-ordinator

Yvette Knight

Yu Kurihara

Max Maslen

Lachlan Monaghan

Beatrice Parma

Soloists

Karla Doorbar

Riku Ito

First Artists

Haoliang Feng

Reina Fuchigami

Gus Payne

Rachele Pizzillo

Daria Stanciulescu

Artists

Gabriel Anderson

Louis Andreasen

Enrique Bejarano Vidal

Rosanna Ely

Ryan Felix

Callum Findlay-White

Tori Forsyth-Hecken

August Generalli

Miles Gilliver

Tessa Hogge

Isabella Howard

Regan Hutsell

Sofia Liñares

Ava May Llewellyn

Hannah Martin

Eric Pinto Cata

Emma Price

Matilde Rodrigues

Javier Rojas

Hamish Scott

Eilis Small

Lennert Steegen

Yuki Sugiura

Lynsey Sutherland

Amelia Thompson

Lucy Waine

Shuailun Wu

Artists | BRB2

Jack Easton

Frieda Kaden

Maïlène Katoch

Oscar Kempsey-Fagg

Mason King

Apprentice

Olivia Chang Clarke

ROYAL BALLET SINFONIA

Principal Conductor

Paul Murphy

Conductor

Philip Ellis

Constant Lambert

Conducting Fellowship

Charlotte Politi

First Violins

Robert Gibbs Leader

Vanessa David

Amanda Brown

Deborah Schlenther

Philip Aird

Caroline Ferriman

Second Violins

Rebecca Jones

Mary Martin

Fiona Robertson

Robert Simmons

Violas

Errika Collins

Cellos

António Novais

Jane Rainey

Double Basses

Vera Pereira

Alan Taylor

Flutes

Sandra Skipper, Piccolo

Oboes

Maxwell Spiers Cor anglais

Clarinets

Ian Scott

Harry Penny Bass Clarinet

Bassoons

Luke Tucker

Horns

Andrew Littlemore

Neil Mitchell

Chris Pointon

Trumpets

Michael Allen

Christopher Deacon

Trombones

Amos Miller

Andrew White

Tubas

David Gordon Shute

Timpani

Grahame King

Percussion

Kevin Earley

Paul Parker

Head of Piano

Jeanette Wong

Company Pianist

Ross Williams

For vacancies in the Royal Ballet Sinfonia visit brb.org.uk/sinfonia

Chief Operating Officer

Anna Williams fca, dch a

Chief Commercial Officer

Paul James

Business Affairs Consultant

Irving David (Level Law)

SALES, MARKETING & AUDIENCES

Head of Marketing

Kate Howells

Senior Marketing Executive

Melissa Evans

Marketing Executive –Audiences

Joe Palfrey

Senior Design Executive

Lee Armstrong

Design Executives

Vicki Costin

Matt Davis

Executive Projects

Jim Fletcher

Creative Digital Producer

Tom Rogers

Digital Content Executive

Imogen Harvey

Digital Marketing Apprentice

Henry McNab

Public Relations

National: Bread and Butter PR; Birmingham: M Seven Public

Relations

LEARNING, ENGAGEMENT, ACCESS & PARTICIPATION

Director of LEAP

Pearl Chesterman

Head of Creative Learning

Lee Fisher

Learning & Participation Manager

Rebecca Brookes

Engagement Manager

Kasia Carmo Maternity leave

Participation Coordinator

Katherine Field

Engagement Coordinator

Hannah MacGregor

LEAP Apprentice

Katie Eldridge

DEVELOPMENT

Director of Development

Matt Freeman

Senior Trusts & Foundations Manager

Rhianna Swancott

Senior Individual Giving Manager

Georgia Davenport

Company Events Manager

Hope McGoldrick

Corporate Partnerships Manager

Emma Thompson

Individual Giving Officer

Helen Barrett

Development Executive

Daniella Rodriguez

FINANCE AND PROJECTS

Executive Producer

Abigail Reeve

Interim Finance Director

Judith Patrickson

Finance Officers

Deseree Greenaway-Williams

Ruth Whelan

Finance Assistant

Charlotte Rowley

HUMAN RESOURCES

Human Resources Director

Claire Owen

Senior Human Resources Administrator

Sam Howe

Human Resources Administrator

Lucy Tranter

Payroll Manager

Amanda Pitt

Receptionist & Administrator

Karen Fisher

Health, Safety and Environmental Manager

Kate Darby

Facilities Manager

Glenn Rudge

Caretaker

Philip Pearsall

COMPANY OFFICE

Company Manager

Tristan Rusdale

Interim Assistant Company Manager

Lynsey Sutherland

JERWOOD CENTRE

Clinical Director

Nick Allen ph d msc mcsp srp

Head Physiotherapist

Khushnum Pastakia mcsp srp

Rehabilitation and Conditioning Lead

Esther Collacott mcsp srp

Company Physiotherapist

Laura Gent mcsp srp

Medical Advisors

Bellevue Medical Centre

ORCHESTRA

Orchestra Director

John Beadle

Orchestra Manager

Andrew Bentley

Music Assistant

Amira Davina Campbell

TECHNICAL

Technical Director

Paul Grace

Stage Manager

Eliska Robenn

Deputy Stage Manager

Rachel Snead

Technical Manager –Production

Ben Leveson

Head of Stage

Paul Moore

Deputy Head of Stage

Tom Reilly

Stage Technicians

Thomas Ainsley

Steve Hegan

Head of Production Hire & Sales

Doug Nicholson

Technical Manager –Lighting/A/V

Johnny Westall-Eyre

Head of Lighting

Andy Wilson

Senior Lighting Technicians

Alastair Phillips

Andrew Rumble

Scott Smith

Lighting Technician

Marcus Trombley

Head of Costume / Costume Supervisor

Elaine Garlick

Costume Production Coordinator

Vanda Hewston

Touring Costume Manager

Shermaine Gocoul

Production Costume Cutter & Maker

Anna Willetts

Production Costume Technicians

Leah Norton

Joanna Shilton

Costume Technicians

Lucy Cook

Gabrielle Raven

Rebecca Robinson

Footwear Supervisor

Michael Clifford

Head of Wigs / Wigs Supervisor

Lauren FitzGerald

Deputy Head of Wigs

Fay Johnson

Wigs Assistant

Lizzie McQuire

THANK YOU

Principal Supporters

Aud Jebsen

Lord Glendonbrook and Mr Martin Ritchie

Alan and Caroline Howard

David and Mary Laing

Oak Foundation Special Interest Programme

The Royal Opera House Benevolent Fund

Dancers’ Circle – Principal

Julia and Anthony Glossop

Richard and Sue Johnston

Tony Newcombe

Dancers’ Circle – Soloist

Jill and Andrew Chapman

CMP Wealth Management

Richard and Jennie Cunis

Peggy Czyzak-Dannenbaum

Roy and Maureen Kirby

Chantelle Mackay

Marian Mulady

Gillian Shaw

Major Supporters

Jayne Cadbury and Nigel Goodman

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Charles Glanville and James Hogan

The Kirby Laing Foundation

The Michael Bishop Foundation

Mr and Mrs Natsis

Sir Michael and Joan Perry

Su and Richard Simkin

Michael and Sandra Squires

John Weston

Dancers’ Circle – Artist

Jenny Batelen and Rob Brett

Roger and Felicity Burman

Amanda Carter

Dr Jim Clews

Guy and Judy Crofts

Irving and Olga David

Robyn Durie

Susan and Frederick Furniss

Tessa Gillespie

Prof Caroline Gordon

P.S. and C.A. Gravestock

Wendy and Gordon Hardy

Jill and Malcolm Harris

Tom Hotchkiss

Dr Sandra Kendall

Tessa and Charles King-Farlow

Shirley Leaver

Hilary Macaulay

Shaaron and Andrew Morgan

Katie Newbon

Linda Nicholls

Sir David and Lady Win Normington

Rosie Parker RAD RTS

Keith Perry

Amanda and Emily Pillinger

Chris Relph

Ross Roberts

Carole Sallnow

Barbara Scott

Miles Scott and Lucille Roughley

Margaret Shand

Carla and Dilys Skinner

Mark and Amanda Smith

Nick Makin and Brenda Sumner

Beverley Thurbin

Ron and Jackie Treverton-Jones

Gold Friends

Jane Arthur

Rachel Cavet

Dr Anthony Cook and Miss Susan Elias

Ian Fisher

Mrs Eileen Goodwin

Carolyn Harford

Penny Kirkwood

Ian Kirkwood

Richard Lewis

Anne Maguire

Helen Miles

Lyn Proctor

Glen Sanderson

David Spencer

and our many individual supporters who prefer to remain anonymous.

Trusts and Foundations

Eveson Charitable Trust

The Garrick Charitable Trust

The Geoff Hill Charitable Trust

George Fentham Birmingham Charity

The George Henry Collins Charity

GJW Turner Trust

The Grantham Yorke Trust

The Grey Court Trust

The Grimmitt Trust

The H Steven & P E Wood Charitable Trust

The Hawthorne Charitable Trust

The RTR Foundation/Baily Thomas Charitable Fund

The S and D Lloyd Charity

Sabina Sutherland Charitable Trust

The Saintbury Trust

Scops Arts Trust

Souter Charitable Trust

St Jude’s Trust

St Thomas’ Dole Charity

Stanley Picker Trust

The Sterry Family Foundation

The Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust

The Alan Woodfield Charitable Trust

The Albert And Elizabeth Clark Charitable Trust

The Alison Hillman Charitable Trust

Amar-Franses and Foster-Jenkins Trust

The Arts Society Birmingham

The Aspinwall Educational Trust

Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust

Baron Davenport’s Charity

Bayfield Charitable Trust

The Bernard Piggott Charitable Trust

BHSF Medical Charity and Welfare Trust

Birmingham Common Good Trust

The Boshier-Hinton Foundation

The Brian Shaw Memorial Trust

The Calleva Foundation

The Cecil King Memorial Foundation

The Charles Brotherton Trust

The Charlotte Bonham-Carter Charitable Trust

The Chatwin Trust

City of Birmingham Orchestral Endowment Fund

CL and JS Cadbury Trust

Clare King Charitable Trust

The Clore Duffield Foundation

The John S Cohen Foundation

The David and Helen Lowe Charitable Trust

David Solomons Charitable Trust

The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust

Dumbreck Charity

The DWF Charitable Foundation

The Edgar E. Lawley Foundation

The Edward and Dorothy Cadbury Trust

The Edward Cadbury Charitable Trust

Ensix Charitable Trust

Eric W Vincent Trust Fund

The Helen Rachael Mackaness Charitable Trust

Henry James Sayer Charity

Howard Victor Skan Charitable Trust

IMI Critical Engineering Charitable Appeals Committee

The James Frederick & Ethel Anne Measures Charity

The John Avins Trust

John Feeney Charitable Trust

The John Sumner Trust

The John Thaw Foundation

The Keith Coombs Trust

Langdale Trust

London Ballet Circle

The Loppylugs and Barbara Morrison Charitable Trust

The Lord Austin Trust

M K Rose Charitable Trust

The Marchus Trust

The Marsh Charitable Trust

The Michael Marsh Charitable Trust

The Misses C M Pearson & M V Williams Charitable Trust

The Noel Coward Foundation

The Norton Foundation

The Oakley Charitable Trust

The Owen Family Trust

The Patricia Routledge Foundation

The Peter and Teresa Harris Charitable Trust

Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire

Quayle Charitable Trust

Richard Cadbury Charitable Trust

Richard Kilcuppe’s Charity

The Roger and Douglas Turner

Charitable Trust

The Roughley Charitable Trust

RPS Drummond Fund

The Thistle Trust

Thriplow Charitable Trust

The Uncle Bill Trust

The Vandervell Foundation

W E Dunn Charitable Trust

William A Cadbury Charitable Trust

The Wilmcote Charitrust

and those trusts and foundations that prefer to remain anonymous.

Corporate Supporters

Corporate Members

As the largest set of Barristers’ Chambers in the UK with over 260 members including 39 Silks, we have the quality and depth of expertise to meet your legal needs.

Throughout our 100 year history, No5 Barristers’ Chambers has developed a reputation for breaking new ground and continues to be regarded as a progressive and forward thinking set.

With offices in Birmingham, London and Bristol we are ideally placed to provide expertise at all levels throughout the UK and overseas.

Aldeburgh Festival

09 - 25 June 2023

A celebration of music and place: music familiar and new, ve exhibitions, ve lms, two operas, a centenary celebration of the composer Ligeti, concert theatre and more. All set in the magical Suffolk landscape.

brittenpearsarts.org