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The Lowry’s partner company Birmingham Royal Ballet is thrilled to return to its home in the North West. The internationally acclaimed and award-winning company will embark on The Lowry with David Bintley’s gothic fairytale Beauty and the Beast from
Tue 24 January – Saturday 28 January 2012.
Beauty and the Beast, a firm favourite for all the family, ballet aficionados and first-time attendees to a ballet, promises to delight audiences in Salford when it is performed by Birmingham Royal Ballet for the first time in four years at The Lowry. The cast includes three dancers from the North West; Yvette Knight from Lancaster James Barton from Birkenhead and Brandon Lawrence from Bradford.
Robert Parker, Principal Dancer, will play the Beast; the role created on him in 2003 when this production was born. Robert will dance the role for the last time at The Lowry in January before he retires from dancing in July 2012 to become Artistic Director at Birmingham Royal Ballet’s associate school, Elmhurst School for Dance.
Interviews available with Robert Parker upon request.
This production of Beauty and the Beast, one of the most popular ballets in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s repertoire, received its world premiere on 1 December 2003 at the Company’s home theatre, Birmingham Hippodrome. Created by David Bintley, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Director and widely recognised as one of Britain’s finest choreographers, the production has gone from strength to strength in the eight years since its creation. Now this story of passion and prejudice returns to The Lowry for seven performances only.
Interviews available with David Bintley upon request
Searching the country to salvage his lost fortune, a once-wealthy merchant seeks shelter in a mysterious castle, where invisible forces tend to his every need. The merchant’s older daughters have demanded gifts of gold, jewels and fine clothes; the youngest, Belle, has asked for a single rose.
But when the merchant plucks just one bloom from the garden of the castle he unleashes a fearsome Beast, who exacts a terrible forfeit: in return for the merchant’s life, he must send his daughter Belle to live in the castle. As the dazzlingly beautiful Belle prepares to meet her beastly captor, she is about to discover for herself the meaning of true love.
A beautiful girl, a hideous beast, a golden ballroom full of animals, two outrageously haughty sisters and a grumpy grandmother worthy of Roald Dahl, dance, prance and rage through the unfolding pages of Philip Prowse's stunning storybook set of forests and castles, whilst David Bintley's rich choreographic palette brings to life magical transformations, wild waltzes, soaring formations of birds and a relationship between Belle and the Beast that is at first terrifying, but ultimately serene and beautiful.
Weaving some delightful new twists into this timeless fable, David Bintley’s Beauty and the Beast is the classic family treat danced by some of the world’s greatest dancers. With Philip Prowse’s fairytale sets and amazing costumes, and Glenn Buhr’s irresistibly melodic, sparkling and beautiful original score, played by members of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the orchestra of Birmingham Royal Ballet, this is an unforgettable evening of entertainment for all ages.
Listing Information
Tue 24 January – Saturday 28 January 2012
Times 7.30pm, Wed & Sat 2pm
Tickets £15.50 - £37.50
Lyric Theatre
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The Lowry Information & Box Office
Telephone 0843 2086005
www.thelowry.com
The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays M50 3AZ
Twitter @The_Lowry
Facebook www.facebook.com/TheLowrySalford
Notes to Editors
Media Enquiries
For further information and interview requests please contact:
Simon Harper, Media and PR Manager – SimonHarper@brb.org.uk or 0121 245 3562
Claire Lishman, Media and PR Officer – ClaireLishman@brb.org.uk or 0121 245 3459
Images
For high resolution images, please go to The Lowry’s image library www.thelowryimages.com
New users need to register by clicking on ‘register’ on the left hand side of the page, fill in the required information (which includes creating your own password) and click ‘create account’. You will then have immediate access to the image library.
For Beauty and the Beast images do to Theatres/Dance/Beauty and the Beast
Birmingham Royal Ballet – A Brief History
1987
Birmingham Hippodrome and Birmingham City Council invite Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet to re-locate to Birmingham.
Richard Johnson, Director of Birmingham Hippodrome and on behalf of Birmingham City Council meets with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet’s Director Peter Wright and General Manager Christopher Nourse. They discuss the proposed plans for a move, to be helped by local funding and improved facilities at Birmingham Hippodrome
1989
Relocation announced at a press conference on 12 January
In June, Dame Ninette de Valois lays the foundation stone at Birmingham Hippodrome to commemorate new studios and facilities
1990
Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet moves to a new home in Birmingham and changes its name to Birmingham Royal Ballet
1995
Sir Peter Wright retires. David Bintley becomes Artistic Director
1997
Birmingham Royal Ballet becomes independent of the Royal Opera House
2005
Christopher Barron joins Birmingham Royal Ballet as Chief Executive
Elmhurst School for Dance moves from London to Birmingham and becomes an Associate School of Birmingham Royal Ballet
2010
As the company prepares to celebrate twenty years in the City of Birmingham, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Director David Bintley wins ITV The South Bank Show Dance Award and an Olivier nomination for E=mc²
About Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet is an international touring ballet company based in the Midlands and housed at Birmingham Hippodrome. The Company has operated under various titles over a number of years, most notably Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, named after its previous home in London, where, as was its original purpose, it acted as the touring Company for the Royal Ballet.
Since them, Birmingham Royal Ballet has maintained touring duties, performing both domestically within the UK, as well as internationally. While at its home Birmingham Hippodrome it still hosts the largest number of performances for a single venue; more than double this amount of shows are undertaken by the Company elsewhere in the country.
Birmingham Royal Ballet is a regular visitor to Plymouth, Sunderland, The Lowry in Salford, London (usually at Sadler’s Wells and Coliseum), Cardiff and Edinburgh. The Company also performs ‘split-tours’ whereby half of the Company performs in venues in the North and East and the other half simultaneously performs in the South West of England. International tours include visits to Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, New York, Chicago, Virginia as well as tours to Japan in 2008, China in 2009, Virginia Arts Festival in May 2010, Hong Kong 2011 and Japan planned for May 2011.
At present, Birmingham Royal Ballet has over 70 dancers and ballet staff, a full Wardrobe and Technical crew, Learning Department (Education), Finance, Marketing and PR departments, and staff for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the orchestra of Birmingham Royal Ballet. In addition to this, the Company employs a Company Manager, a selection of Pianists as well as various administration staff. The Company is headed by the Chief Executive Christopher Barron and the Director, David Bintley. David himself was a dancer previously with the Royal Ballet companies and is responsible for the creation of a range of works in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s current repertory.
Since its arrival in Birmingham, the Company has built up a large and loyal local audience, keen to experience the contemporary new works as well as the more traditional productions.
During 2005 and 2006, Birmingham Royal Ballet joined forces with Channel 4, Youth at Risk, the local authorities of Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton to work with young people from across the West Midlands in order to stage Kenneth MacMillan’s production of Romeo and Juliet. This process was televised as Ballet Changed My Life: Ballet Hoo! during September 2006.
Birmingham Royal Ballet continues to undertake innovative Learning projects such as Dance Track which aims to find and nurture dance potential from amongst its local community. The Company is also responsible for Freefall Dance Company which provides opportunities for dancers of school-leaving age with severe learning disabilities.
A brand new production of Cinderella enjoyed its world premiere at Birmingham Hippodrome on November 24 2010. The production by Company Director David Bintley, with designs by John Macfarlane, was transmitted on BBC 2 on Christmas Day 2010.
Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Leader: Robbie Gibbs
The Royal Ballet Sinfonia is Britain's busiest ballet orchestra, playing for Birmingham Royal Ballet's wide-ranging programme in the UK and abroad. The Sinfonia also plays frequently for The Royal Ballet and many of the world's other leading ballet companies, including regular performances with The Royal Ballet, as well as Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Kirov, Norwegian Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and La Scala Ballet.
Concert performances at the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham's Symphony Hall and other major British venues also form a regular part of the Sinfonia's work. The Sinfonia's opera performances include The Royal Opera's acclaimed production of Turandot at Wembley Arena.
The Sinfonia's recordings include video soundtracks to Birmingham Royal Ballet's Nutcracker, Coppélia and Hobson's Choice and CDs of English string music, the Sullivan overtures, the film scores of Richard Addinsell, Far from the Madding Crowd and The Ealing Comedies, which won the 1998 Gramophone Award for best film music. The complete score of John McCabe's Edward II was released on CD by Hyperion in 2000, a special double CD, Tribute to Madam (ASV), a recording of the scores of four ballets by Ninette de Valois, was recorded and released in 2001, Tribute to Sir Fred (Sanctuary Classics), a recording of the scores of four ballets by Frederick Ashton to celebrate his centenary, was released in 2004, with a second volume in 2005.
About The Lowry
The Lowry celebrated its 10th anniversary on 28 April 2010 and has spent over a decade delighting, engaging and challenging both local and national audiences with the very best in visual art and performance. The Lowry Centre Trust is a not-for-profit charitable organisation and registered charity (no. 1053962). All income supports our world-class Theatres and Galleries programme, the care and display of the LS Lowry Collection and our life-changing Community and Education work. The Lowry’s Chief Executive, Julia Fawcett (www.thelowry.com/juliafawcett) was awarded an OBE for services to the Arts in the Queen’s 2010 New Year Honours list.
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