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The Royal Ballet traditionally made available headphones with descriptive narration so that visually impaired patrons could track the performance on stage. Presently, through a groundbreaking performance, the entire gathering will experience such descriptions within a piece that examines how visual impairment can transform our perceptions to sensation, sound and dramatic expression.

Blind Creator Collaborates with Famous Choreographers

The blind artist, a visually impaired creator, is collaborating with Sir Wayne McGregor, together with other dance creators, and composer Max Richter in creating a new Royal Ballet work that will launch on November 12th, World Ballet Day, as declared recently.

Within her creative practice, the artist is guided by a desire to illustrate how blindness and physical challenge can offer an different form of understanding for everyone. Her rich spoken descriptions, woven with the music, establishes the heart of the performance on stage.

"Producing world-class dance and musical theater for everyone" is a guiding principle of the the organization. Under Kevin O’Hare, the Royal Ballet's director, the company is focusing on "total access – encouraging performers and viewers to experience dance in life-changing innovative methods," he explained.

Several Dance Creators Collaborate on Fresh Production

The fresh production is being created by choreographer Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, alongside McGregor, all collaborating with Healey.

Robert Binet, the director of this work, said: "World Ballet Day was created on the idea of accessibility. After a ten years, we're expanding that concept further to consider how disabled outlooks can shape our performance style, and encourage audiences of all abilities and histories to experience dance in innovative methods."

Following partnerships with the artist in Canadian venues and Australia, the curator recognized that those with vision who had experienced the artist's descriptive audio found it aided them grasp dance, which can appear so complex.

Moving Partnership Between Expert and Non-Professional Dancers

In one performance, the company's dancer Leo Dixon will dance with Takashi Kikuchi, an non-professional performer who has been visually impaired from childhood and who had long assumed that ballet was "mainly for those who can see". But the dancer has realized that it in fact "involves a lot of feeling and feelings" and taps into senses, "visual and non-sight".

Kikuchi’s personal story of once getting lost on his way home and using the sunlight to direct his way back had influenced a performance in which the professional dancer becomes the "soothing presence of the sunlight around his partner as they perform as one," Malcomson stated.

"It was during the day and I had a feeling that the sun should be shining from the west. So, if I faced the sunlight, even though I wouldn’t see the sunlight itself, I could feel the temperature … So I continued moving to the western direction …. It guided me home. The sun was a excellent guide to me. The sunlight could be a meaningful symbol. So the tale emerged from there."

Blindness Offers Special Connection with Dance

Healey, an scholar of disability research at the Toronto university, stated: "Blindness and lacking sight invites a vibrant relationship with dance in a way that is like a expert performer's connection with their physical self and dance."

In collaborating with the performers, she was striving to communicate what "they perceive in their physical being, something that’s just not perceivable through vision," she noted. "I talk with the dancers to get a understanding of how they feel in their physical self, where their respiration is, what they consider, how their body are feeling.

"Partnering with the choreographers [and] clothing, lighting, scenery and sound creators, the understandings and innovation of blindness are constantly visible as we, blind and sighted people, build a relationship through our love of motion and performance. It is this innovation and love that I attempt to weave into the detailed narration. It is a partnership of the perceptions led by blindness."

The artist continued: "While the sight of the performance, the gorgeous display, is present facing the patrons, there is a great deal that they overlook or understanding, and it is visual impairment that is encouraging seeing and blind patrons alike into the unseen. What I hope is that, when audience members leave, they experience performance in a distinct way, and they’re also sensing the presence, and perceiving the perceptions of, visual impairment in fresh and dynamic ways."

Composer The Composer on Audio Narration

Richter, whose compositions have gathered more than 3.5 billion online plays, commented the spoken narration formed a rapport between blindness and sight "via a audio environment, giving voice to that which remains unseen". He continued: "This isn't just a explanation of a production. This is the art."

International Dance Day Partners

The Royal Ballet’s global partners for World Ballet Day include the National Ballet of Canada and the Australian dance troupe. The organizations will additionally offer entry to exclusive material, rehearsals and newly commissioned productions – streamed as it happens via their official platform.