Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) is one of the five major

ballet companies A ballet company is a type of dance troupe which performs classical ballet, neoclassical ballet, and/or contemporary ballet in the European tradition, plus managerial and support staff. Most major ballet companies employ dancers on a year-round ba ...

of the United Kingdom, alongside The Royal Ballet, the

English National Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scot ...

Northern Ballet Northern Ballet, formerly Northern Ballet Theatre, is a dance company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a strong repertoire in theatrical dance productions where the emphasis is on story telling as well as classical ballet. The compa ...

and

Scottish Ballet Scottish Ballet is the national ballet company of Scotland and one of the five leading ballet companies of the United Kingdom, alongside the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet. Founded in 1969, ...

. Founded as the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, the company was established in 1946 as a sister company to the earlier

Sadler's Wells Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...

company, which moved to the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal ...

that same year, subsequently becoming known as The Royal Ballet. The new company was formed under the direction of John Field and remained at Sadler's Wells for many years, becoming known as the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet in 1977. It also toured the UK and abroad, before relocating to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

in 1990, where it uses the

Birmingham Hippodrome The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England. Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including vi ...

stage when performing in the city. Birmingham Royal Ballet has extensive custom-built facilities, including a suite of dance studios, the ''Jerwood Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Dance Injuries'' and a studio theatre known as the '' Patrick Centre''. In 1997, the Birmingham Royal Ballet became independent of The Royal Ballet in London.

History

In 1926, the Irish-born dancer

Ninette de Valois Dame Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus; 6 June 1898 – 8 March 2001) was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Ru ...

founded the ''Academy of Choreographic Art'', a dance school for girls. Her intention was to form a repertory ballet company and school, leading her to collaborate with the English theatrical producer and theatre owner Lilian Baylis. Baylis owned the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Ma ...

and

theatres, and in 1925, she engaged de Valois to stage dance performances at both venues. Sadler's Wells reopened in 1931, and the ''Vic-Wells Ballet'' and ''Vic-Wells Ballet School'' were established in premises at the theatre. These would become the predecessors of today's ''Royal Ballet'', ''Birmingham Royal Ballet'' and '' Royal Ballet School''. In 1939, the company lost its link with the Old Vic theatre, and in 1940, Sadler's Wells theatre was bombed during World War II. These events forced the company to begin touring the country, becoming known as the Sadler's Wells Ballet. The company did return to Sadler's Wells theatre, where it stayed until 1946, when the company was invited to become the resident ballet company of the newly re-opened Royal Opera House in

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

. The company relocated to the opera house the same year in 1946, with their first production at the venue being Ninette de Valois' staging of '' The Sleeping Beauty''. Birmingham Royal Ballet - E=MC2 - February 2011

Birmingham Royal Ballet - E=MC2 - February 2011

Following the relocation of the company, the school was relocated to its own premises in 1947, and a sister company was established to continue performances at Sadler's Wells, called ''Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet''. This sister company would become the predecessor of today's Birmingham Royal Ballet. The first Artistic Director of the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet was John Field, who was later made co-director of the Royal Ballet and also worked as artistic director of

La Scala Theatre Ballet The La Scala Theatre Ballet ( it, Corpo di ballo del Teatro alla Scala) is the resident classical ballet company at La Scala in Milan, Italy. One of the oldest and most renowned ballet companies in the world, the company pre-dates the theatre, bu ...

and

. In 1955, ''Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet'' temporarily lost its link with Sadler's Wells theatre and relocated to the Royal Opera House as a touring unit of the main company. In 1956, a Royal Charter was granted for both companies and the school, and they were subsequently renamed the ''Royal Ballet'', ''Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet'' and the ''Royal Ballet School''. The ''Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet'' returned to Sadler's Wells theatre in 1970, whilst continuing to tour the country. The first indication that the company would leave London came in 1987, when the company was invited to become the resident ballet company at the Birmingham Hippodrome theatre. Consequently, the company relocated to

in 1990, being given its current name ''Birmingham Royal Ballet''.

Sir Peter Wright Sir Peter Wright CBE (born 25 November 1926) is a British ballet teacher, choreographer, director and former professional dancer. He worked as a choreographer and as the artistic director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, a classical ballet company ba ...

was the company's Artistic Director from 1977 until his retirement in 1995, when David Bintley was appointed Artistic Director. In 1997, Birmingham Royal Ballet was made independent of the Royal Ballet and ceased to be managed by the Royal Opera House. In January 2019 it was announced that acclaimed Cuban dancer

Carlos Acosta Carlos Yunior Acosta Quesada (born 2 June 1973) is a Cuban-British ballet director and retired dancer who is director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. He danced with many companies including the English National Ballet, National Ballet of Cu ...

would succeed Bintley as artistic director in January 2020.

Works performed

Dancers

Principals

First Soloists

*Kit Holder *Yvette Knight *Rory Mackay *Miki Mizutani *Valentin Olovyannikov *Jonathan Payn *Yaoqian Shang

Soloists

*Laura Day *Karla Doorbar *Yu Kurihara *Max Maslen *Lachlan Monaghan *Beatrice Parma *Yijing Zhang

First Artists

*Haoliang Feng *Reina Fuchigami *Gus Payne *Rachele Pizillo *Alys Shee *Edivaldo Souza da Silva *Daria Stanciulescu

Artists

*Gabriel Anderson *Louis Andreasen *Enrique Bejarano Vidal *Alexandra Burman *Anna Ciriano *Rosanna Ely *Ryan Felix *Callum Findlay-White *Tori Forsyth-Hecken *August Generalli *Miles Gilliver *Josue Gomez Sarria *Tessa Hogge *Isabella Howard *Regan Hutsell *Sofia Liñares *Eric Pinto Cata *Emma Price *Matilde Rodrigues *Javier Rojas *Hamish Scott *Eilis Small *Lennert Steegan *Yuki Sugiura *Lynsey Sutherland *Amelia Thompson *Lucy Waine *Shuailun Wu *Alexander Yap

Apprentices

*Hannah Martin

Footnotes

External links

*
Birmingham Royal Ballet tour blog
{{authority control The Royal Ballet Schools of the performing arts in the United Kingdom Ballet schools in the United Kingdom Culture in Birmingham, West Midlands National Dance Award winners 1947 establishments in England Performing groups established in 1946