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This prestigious ballet company traditionally provided audio devices with descriptive narration so that sightless patrons could track the performance on stage. Now, in a revolutionary production, the whole crowd will experience such narration within a piece that explores how blindness can transform our perceptions to sensation, sound and storytelling.

Visually Impaired Creator Works with Famous Choreographers

The blind artist, a visually impaired professional, is working with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, alongside other choreographers, and composer Max Richter in developing a recent Royal Ballet work that will launch on 12 November, International Ballet Day, as announced recently.

Through her work, the artist is driven by a desire to demonstrate how visual impairment and physical challenge can present an alternative type of awareness for each individual. Her “immersive descriptive audio”, blended with the music, establishes the core of the show on stage.

"Producing top-tier dance and musical theater for each person" is a guiding principle of the Royal Opera House. Under Kevin O’Hare, the Royal Ballet's leader, the organization is concentrating on "radical accessibility – encouraging artists and patrons to experience dance in transformative innovative methods," he explained.

Several Choreographers Collaborate on New Performance

The recent commission is being choreographed by Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, in addition to McGregor, every one collaborating with Healey.

Robert Binet, the organizer of this work, commented: "International Ballet Day was established on the idea of accessibility. After a ten years, we're pushing that notion deeper to consider how impaired viewpoints can mold our art form, and welcome viewers of all abilities and backgrounds to encounter dance in new ways."

After collaborating with Healey in Canada and Australian locations, the curator recognized that those with vision who had experienced the artist's spoken descriptions felt it aided them understand dance, which can look so unclear.

Moving Collaboration Of Expert and Non-Professional Performers

In one duet, the Royal Ballet performer Leo Dixon will perform alongside Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been visually impaired from childhood and who had always thought that ballet was "primarily for individuals with vision". But Kikuchi has discovered that it in fact "involves a lot of feeling and emotions" and activates faculties, "visual and non-sight".

Kikuchi’s personal story of once losing his way on his way home and relying on the sun to guide his way back had inspired a performance in which the professional dancer embodies the "soothing presence of the sunlight around Kikuchi as they dance in unison," the choreographer said.

"It was mid-afternoon and I had a sense that the sun should be shining from the west. So, if I faced the sunlight, even though I couldn't see the rays itself, I could feel the temperature … So I continued moving to the west …. It led me home. The sun was a excellent assistant to me. The sunlight could be a good representation. So the tale originated from there."

Visual Impairment Provides Distinct Connection with Movement

Healey, an academic of disability research at the University of Toronto, said: "Blindness and being blind encourages a active bond with motion in a way that is similar to a professional dancer’s relationship with their physical self and motion."

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

"Partnering with the dance creators [and] costume, lighting, scenery and sound designers, the understandings and artistry of blindness are constantly visible as we, blind and sighted people, establish a relationship through our love of dance and performance. It is this artistry and love that I try to weave into the spoken commentary. It is a cooperation of the faculties led by blindness."

The artist noted: "Although the vision of the performance, the gorgeous spectacle, is available facing the audience, there is so much that they miss or valuing, and it is blindness that is encouraging seeing and blind viewers equally into the hidden. What I desire is that, when audience members leave, they sense dance in a new way, and they’re also feeling the existence, and hearing the perceptions of, blindness in fresh and active ways."

Musician The Composer on Sound Descriptions

The composer, whose recordings have gathered more than billions of streams, commented the spoken narration formed a relationship between blindness and vision "through a musical landscape, giving voice to that which remains unseen". He added: "This isn't just a narration of a show. It is performance."

World Ballet Event Collaborators

The Royal Ballet’s global partners for World Ballet Day feature the National Ballet of Canada and the Australian dance troupe. The companies will furthermore provide entry to backstage video, practice sessions and newly commissioned works – streamed as it happens via online channels.