Birmingham Royal Ballet Director David Bintley and dancers visited the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford upon Avon.
In 2016, BRB will present seven different ballets in ten theatres around the UK to commemorate 400 years since William Shakespeare’s death inspired by the playwright's stories, characters and prose, including two world premières and two pieces new to the Company.
Principal dancers Iain Mackay and Jenna Roberts plus Soloists William Bracewell and Delia Matthews will be dancing the roles of Romeo and Juliet this February. They had the chance to view one of the original folios containing the manuscript for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Company Director, David Bintley will unveil his new full-length balletic interpretation of The Tempest this October.
Talking during the visit to the Birthplace Trust he said, “with Shakespeare you start with the story and those amazing characters. In terms of ballet, you find productions of things like Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest the world over—the fantasy pieces and the love stories translate really well into dance, most famously of course Romeo and Juliet—it's made for dancers.
"That's what ballet does so well without words. You can fall instantly in love—which doesn't happen very often in life, but in the ballet it's something we can create with the language of the body.”