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The Royal Ballet for years provided audio devices with audio descriptions so that blind audience members could understand the movement on stage. Presently, through a revolutionary performance, the whole audience will experience such commentary within a production that explores how lack of sight can reshape our reactions to feeling, sound and narrative.

Blind Creator Collaborates with Renowned Choreographers

The blind artist, a blind creator, is collaborating with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, together with other choreographers, and composer Max Richter in creating a new Royal Ballet commission that will premiere on November 12th, International Ballet Day, as announced recently.

In her art, the artist is guided by a wish to show how visual impairment and disability can offer an alternative type of understanding for all people. Her detailed audio narration, blended with the score, forms the core of the production on stage.

"Creating world-class ballet and opera for everyone" is a motto of the the organization. Under Kevin O’Hare, the company's leader, the organization is focusing on "complete inclusion – welcoming artists and viewers to encounter dance in revolutionary new ways," he said.

Multiple Choreographers Partner on Fresh Performance

The new work is being designed by choreographer Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, in addition to Wayne McGregor, all working with the blind artist.

The curator, the organizer of this work, said: "World Ballet Day was established on the idea of accessibility. After a ten years, we're extending that idea more to explore how challenged perspectives can shape our art form, and encourage viewers of all abilities and backgrounds to experience dance in fresh approaches."

Following partnerships with the artist in Canadian venues and Australian locations, the curator recognized that those with vision who had encountered Healey’s audio narration believed it assisted them grasp dance, which can seem so complex.

Touching Collaboration Of Expert and Non-Professional Dancers

In one dance piece, the company's performer Leo Dixon will perform alongside Takashi Kikuchi, an non-professional performer who has been visually impaired since birth and who had previously believed that ballet was "primarily for individuals with vision". But the dancer has understood that it in fact "entails a lot of emotion and emotions" and engages perceptions, "visual and non-visual".

The dancer's unique narrative of earlier losing his way on his way home and relying on the sunlight to orient his way back had influenced a performance in which Dixon becomes the "warm breath of the sun around his partner as they move together," Malcomson explained.

"It was in the afternoon and I had a sense that the sunlight should be radiating from the western sky. So, if I turned toward the sunshine, even though I couldn't see the rays itself, I could sense the warmth … So I continued moving to the western direction …. It led me home. The sun was a excellent helper to me. The sun could be a powerful metaphor. So the narrative originated from there."

Blindness Offers Distinct Connection with Movement

Healey, an academic of disability studies at the University of Toronto, stated: "Visual impairment and lacking sight encourages a vibrant relationship with motion in a way that is comparable to a professional dancer’s connection with their body and motion."

In working with the dancers, the artist was attempting to convey what "they’re experiencing in their body, something that’s just not available through vision," she explained. "I talk with the dancers to get a understanding of how they are in their physical self, where their respiration is, what they consider, how their body are sensing.

"Working together with the dance creators [and] attire, lighting, stage design and sound designers, the viewpoints and creativity of visual impairment are ever present as we, blind and seeing persons, build a connection through our affection of movement and performance. It is this innovation and love that I strive to blend into the detailed narration. It is a partnership of the faculties led by blindness."

The artist added: "While the vision of the dance, the stunning spectacle, is available facing the audience, there is much that they overlook or appreciating, and it is visual impairment that is encouraging sighted and visually impaired viewers both into the hidden. What I hope is that, when viewers depart, they feel ballet in a different way, and they’re also sensing the presence, and listening to the perceptions of, blindness in new and dynamic ways."

Musician Max Richter on Sound Descriptions

Richter, whose works have gathered more than billions of digital listens, commented the spoken narration created a connection between blindness and vision "by means of a musical landscape, providing expression to that which remains unseen". He added: "This isn't merely a description of a production. This is performance."

International Ballet Day Partners

The company's worldwide partners for World Ballet Day include the Canadian ballet company and the Australian Ballet. The organizations will furthermore supply access to exclusive video, practice sessions and newly commissioned pieces – transmitted in real-time via the event website.