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The Royal Ballet has long provided headphones with descriptive narration so that blind viewers could understand the movement on stage. Presently, via a groundbreaking new work, the entire crowd will listen to such commentary within a production that examines how lack of sight can transform our reactions to feeling, sound and dramatic expression.

Blind Artist Partners with Famous Dance Creators

The blind artist, a visually impaired artist, is collaborating with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, together with other choreographers, and musician the celebrated composer in developing a new Royal Ballet work that will launch on November 12th, International Ballet Day, as declared on Thursday.

In her art, the artist is guided by a desire to demonstrate how blindness and physical challenge can offer an different mode of understanding for all people. Her detailed audio narration, blended with the music, forms the core of the production on stage.

"Creating top-tier ballet and musical theater for each person" is a mission statement of the Royal Opera House. Under the director, the Royal Ballet's leader, the troupe is concentrating on "complete inclusion – welcoming artists and audiences to experience dance in revolutionary fresh approaches," he stated.

Various Dance Creators Collaborate on Fresh Production

The fresh production is being designed by choreographer Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, in addition to Wayne McGregor, all partnering with the blind artist.

The curator, the organizer of this production, said: "World Ballet Day was created on the concept of access. After a decade, we're extending that concept more to explore how challenged viewpoints can mold our performance style, and invite viewers of all abilities and experiences to encounter dance in new ways."

After collaborating with Healey in Canadian venues and Australia, the curator realized that those with vision who had heard the artist's spoken descriptions believed it assisted them understand dance, which can look so complex.

Touching Partnership Between Professional and Non-Professional Performers

In a particular dance piece, the company's dancer Leo Dixon will perform alongside Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been sightless from childhood and who had long assumed that dance was "mainly for those who can see". But Kikuchi has realized that it truly "entails a lot of sensation and sentiments" and taps into senses, "visual and non-sight".

The dancer's personal story of once getting lost on his way home and relying on the sunlight to orient his way back had inspired a duet in which Dixon becomes the "gentle warmth of the sun around his partner as they move together," the choreographer explained.

"It was during the day and I had a sense that the sun should be beaming from the western sky. So, if I turned toward the sunshine, even though I couldn't see the rays itself, I could sense the temperature … So I persisted in walking to the western direction …. It led me home. The sun was a good guide to me. The sun could be a good symbol. So the tale developed from there."

Visual Impairment Provides Unique Connection with Movement

Healey, an academic of disability studies at the University of Toronto, said: "Visual impairment and lacking sight invites a vibrant relationship with dance in a way that is comparable to a expert performer's connection with their body and motion."

In partnering with the dancers, she was striving to convey what "they perceive in their physical being, something that’s just not available through sight," she said. "I speak with the dancers to get a sense of how they are in their physical self, where their breathing is, what they’re thinking, how their body are feeling.

"In collaboration with the dance creators [and] attire, stage lights, stage design and audio creators, the understandings and innovation of blindness are constantly visible as we, blind and sighted people, establish a connection through our love of motion and dance. It is this artistry and affection that I strive to blend into the immersive descriptive audio. It is a cooperation of the perceptions led by blindness."

The artist noted: "Even though the vision of the dance, the gorgeous display, is present before the audience, there is so much that they miss or understanding, and it is visual impairment that is welcoming sighted and blind patrons equally into the invisible. What I hope is that, when viewers leave, they sense ballet in a different way, and they’re also experiencing the being, and listening to the understandings of, visual impairment in new and active ways."

Musician The Composer on Sound Narration

The composer, whose recordings have amassed more than 3.5 billion streams, stated the audio descriptions formed a connection between blindness and sight "by means of a musical landscape, giving voice to that which is not always visible". He added: "This isn't merely a explanation of a production. This is the performance itself."

International Ballet Event Partners

The company's international associates for International Ballet Day comprise the Canadian ballet company and the Australian dance troupe. The troupes will furthermore provide entry to behind-the-scenes video, rehearsals and freshly produced works – broadcast live via the event website.