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The Royal Ballet for years made available audio devices with spoken commentary so that visually impaired viewers could follow the action on stage. Now, in a groundbreaking new work, the complete audience will hear such narration within a production that examines how blindness can transform our reactions to experience, music and narrative.

Visually Impaired Artist Works with Renowned Dance Creators

The blind artist, a blind artist, is working with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, alongside other choreographers, and composer Max Richter in developing a fresh Royal Ballet work that will premiere on November 12th, World Ballet Day, as revealed recently.

Within her creative practice, the artist is guided by a wish to illustrate how visual impairment and physical challenge can provide an different form of understanding for everyone. Her “immersive descriptive audio”, blended with the composition, establishes the core of the production on stage.

"Making world-class ballet and musical theater for all" is a mission statement of the the organization. Under Kevin O’Hare, the company's director, the troupe is focusing on "total access – welcoming artists and audiences to discover ballet in life-changing innovative methods," he stated.

Multiple Choreographers Collaborate on Fresh Performance

The fresh production is being designed by Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, alongside McGregor, all partnering with the blind artist.

The curator, the organizer of this commission, commented: "World Ballet Day was created on the idea of access. After a decade, we're pushing that idea deeper to consider how disabled perspectives can mold our art form, and encourage viewers of diverse capacities and histories to discover ballet in fresh approaches."

After collaborating with the artist in Canadian venues and Australian locations, he understood that those with vision who had heard the artist's audio narration believed it assisted them comprehend dance, which can look so abstract.

Touching Collaboration Between Expert and Amateur Performers

In a particular duet, the Royal Ballet dancer Leo Dixon will dance with Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been sightless from childhood and who had always thought that dance was "mainly for those who can see". But the dancer has discovered that it truly "entails a lot of sensation and emotions" and activates perceptions, "sight-based and non-visual".

The dancer's unique narrative of once losing his way on his way home and using the sun to guide his way back had inspired a dance piece in which the professional dancer embodies the "warm breath of the sunlight around his partner as they dance in unison," Malcomson stated.

"This occurred during the day and I had a intuition that the sunlight should be shining from the western sky. So, if I turned toward the sunshine, even though I didn't perceive the rays itself, I could sense the heat … So I persisted in walking to the western direction …. It directed me home. The sun was a excellent assistant to me. The sunlight could be a powerful symbol. So the narrative developed from there."

Blindness Offers Special Connection with Movement

Healey, an assistant professor of disability studies at the Toronto university, commented: "Visual impairment and lacking sight fosters a active connection with dance in a way that is like a professional dancer’s connection with their body and motion."

In partnering with the performers, the artist was striving to convey what "they’re experiencing in their body, something that’s just not accessible through vision," she noted. "I converse with the dancers to get a sense of how they feel in their body, where their breath is, what they consider, how their muscles are experiencing.

"Working together with the choreographers [and] attire, lighting, set and music artists, the perceptions and artistry of blindness are constantly visible as we, visually impaired and seeing individuals, develop a connection through our passion of dance and performance. It is this innovation and love that I attempt to weave into the spoken commentary. It is a partnership of the perceptions led by blindness."

The artist noted: "While the vision of the ballet, the beautiful spectacle, is present in front of the viewers, there is so much that they miss or understanding, and it is blindness that is welcoming sighted and blind patrons alike into the unseen. What I hope is that, when audience members exit, they sense performance in a different way, and they’re also feeling the existence, and perceiving the perceptions of, visual impairment in new and active ways."

Musician Max Richter on Sound Descriptions

Richter, whose works have accumulated more than billions of streams, said the descriptive commentary created a relationship between blindness and vision "by means of a audio environment, giving voice to that which remains unseen". He continued: "It is not simply a explanation of a production. It is performance."

International Ballet Event Collaborators

The company's global collaborators for World Ballet Day include the Canadian ballet company and the Australian Ballet. The troupes will furthermore supply entry to backstage material, rehearsals and recently created works – transmitted as it happens via the event website.