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The Royal Ballet traditionally provided audio devices with audio descriptions so that sightless patrons could track the performance on stage. Now, via a groundbreaking new work, the entire crowd will listen to such descriptions within a work that explores how blindness can redefine our perceptions to sensation, music and narrative.

Visually Impaired Artist Collaborates with Celebrated Dance Creators

The blind artist, a visually impaired artist, is working with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, among other dance creators, and composer Max Richter in producing a new Royal Ballet commission that will debut on November 12th, International Ballet Day, as declared recently.

Through her work, the artist is guided by a wish to demonstrate how visual impairment and disability can provide an alternative form of understanding for everyone. Her detailed audio narration, woven with the music, forms the heart of the performance on stage.

"Creating exceptional dance and musical theater for each person" is a guiding principle of the Royal Opera House. Under Kevin O’Hare, the company's leader, the company is concentrating on "total access – inviting creators and viewers to discover dance in life-changing fresh approaches," he explained.

Various Dance Creators Partner on New Production

The fresh production is being choreographed by choreographer Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, alongside Wayne McGregor, all working with the blind artist.

Robert Binet, the curator of this work, stated: "International Ballet Day was created on the idea of accessibility. After a decade, we're pushing that idea more to explore how disabled outlooks can mold our creative medium, and invite audiences of all abilities and backgrounds to encounter dance in innovative methods."

After collaborating with the artist in Canada and Australia, he understood that sighted people who had encountered Healey’s audio narration found it aided them comprehend ballet, which can appear so unclear.

Inspiring Partnership Of Professional and Amateur Performers

In a particular duet, the Royal Ballet dancer Leo Dixon will partner Takashi Kikuchi, an non-professional performer who has been sightless from birth and who had previously believed that ballet was "primarily for individuals with vision". But the dancer has understood that it actually "includes a lot of emotion and sentiments" and taps into perceptions, "sight-based and non-visual".

The dancer's individual experience of previously losing his way on his way home and using the sunlight to orient his way back had motivated a performance in which Dixon embodies the "soothing presence of the sun around his partner as they dance in unison," the choreographer stated.

"It was mid-afternoon and I had a intuition that the sun should be radiating from the western sky. So, if I turned toward the sunlight, even though I wouldn’t see the light itself, I could feel the warmth … So I kept walking to the west …. It directed me home. The sun was a excellent assistant to me. The sun could be a meaningful metaphor. So the story developed from there."

Blindness Provides Special Relationship with Movement

The blind artist, an assistant professor of disability studies at the Toronto university, commented: "Blindness and being blind invites a active connection with motion in a way that is similar to a professional dancer’s connection with their physical self and dance."

In partnering with the performers, she was seeking to express what "they’re experiencing in their physical being, something that’s just not available through vision," she said. "I talk with the performers to get a feeling of how they are in their physical self, where their breathing is, what they consider, how their muscles are experiencing.

"Partnering with the choreographers [and] attire, lighting, scenery and sound designers, the perceptions and innovation of blindness are ever present as we, visually impaired and sighted persons, establish a relationship through our affection of dance and performance. It is this innovation and passion that I strive to weave into the spoken commentary. It is a cooperation of the perceptions directed by visual impairment."

She continued: "Although the sight of the dance, the gorgeous visual feast, is present before the viewers, there is a great deal that they overlook or valuing, and it is visual impairment that is encouraging seeing and blind viewers alike into the unseen. What I wish is that, when audience members exit, they sense dance in a different way, and they’re also sensing the existence, and perceiving the viewpoints of, visual impairment in fresh and dynamic ways."

Composer The Composer on Audio Descriptions

Richter, whose recordings have gathered more than billions of online plays, stated the audio descriptions established a rapport between blindness and vision "through a soundscape, providing expression to that which is not always visible". He noted: "This isn't simply a narration of a show. This is performance."

International Dance Event Collaborators

The Royal Ballet’s global collaborators for International Ballet Day comprise the Canadian ballet company and the Australian dance troupe. The troupes will also provide entry to exclusive footage, preparations and newly commissioned pieces – transmitted live via the event website.