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The Royal Ballet has long provided headphones with spoken commentary so that blind patrons could track the action on stage. Presently, in a innovative new work, the entire gathering will experience such commentary within a production that examines how lack of sight can redefine our reactions to feeling, audio and storytelling.

Visually Impaired Artist Works with Celebrated Choreographers

The blind artist, a visually impaired artist, is working with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, among other dance creators, and musician Max Richter in developing a recent ballet company production that will launch on 12 November, International Ballet Day, as announced this week.

Within her creative practice, the artist is guided by a desire to demonstrate how visual impairment and physical challenge can offer an unique mode of perception for everyone. Her detailed audio narration, blended with the music, forms the center of the performance on stage.

"Producing top-tier ballet and musical theater for each person" is a mission statement of the Royal Opera House. Under the director, the company's director, the organization is zeroing in on "complete inclusion – inviting performers and patrons to encounter ballet in revolutionary fresh approaches," he explained.

Various Choreographers Partner on Fresh Production

The fresh production is being designed by Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, in addition to McGregor, all collaborating with Healey.

The curator, the organizer of this commission, stated: "World Ballet Day was established on the concept of access. After a decade, we're pushing that concept more to examine how challenged outlooks can shape our performance style, and encourage viewers of every capability and experiences to encounter dance in fresh approaches."

Having worked with the artist in Canadian venues and Australian locations, he realized that individuals who can see who had heard Healey’s spoken descriptions believed it helped them comprehend dance, which can look so complex.

Moving Partnership Between Expert and Non-Professional Dancers

In one duet, the company's dancer Leo Dixon will dance with Takashi Kikuchi, an non-professional performer who has been sightless from childhood and who had long assumed that dance was "mainly for those who can see". But Kikuchi has discovered that it actually "involves a lot of feeling and emotions" and engages perceptions, "visual and non-sight".

The dancer's unique narrative of once getting lost on his way home and depending on the sunlight to guide his way back had motivated a dance piece in which the professional dancer embodies the "soothing presence of the sun around Kikuchi as they dance in unison," the choreographer explained.

"This occurred mid-afternoon and I had a sense that the sunlight should be shining from the western sky. So, if I faced the sunlight, even though I wouldn’t see the rays itself, I could feel the temperature … So I persisted in walking to the west …. It led me home. The sun was a excellent assistant to me. The sunlight could be a good metaphor. So the narrative developed from there."

Visual Impairment Presents Distinct Connection with Movement

The blind artist, an scholar of disability research at the Toronto university, said: "Blindness and being blind encourages a vibrant bond with motion in a way that is comparable to a expert performer's bond with their body and motion."

In collaborating with the performers, she was seeking to express what "they feel in their physical being, something that’s just not perceivable through vision," she said. "I talk with the performers to get a feeling of how they are in their body, where their breathing is, what they think, how their muscles are feeling.

"In collaboration with the choreographers [and] attire, illumination, set and audio artists, the perceptions and creativity of blindness are always there as we, blind and seeing people, establish a rapport through our love of movement and dance. It is this creativity and passion that I attempt to blend into the immersive descriptive audio. It is a partnership of the faculties led by visual impairment."

The artist added: "Although the view of the ballet, the gorgeous display, is there before the viewers, there is a great deal that they miss or appreciating, and it is blindness that is welcoming sighted and blind patrons both into the hidden. What I hope is that, when patrons depart, they experience performance in a distinct way, and they’re also sensing the presence, and listening to the viewpoints of, blindness in innovative and vibrant ways."

Composer Max Richter on Audio Narration

The composer, whose recordings have accumulated more than 3.5 billion digital listens, commented the audio descriptions established a rapport between blindness and sight "by means of a audio environment, providing expression to that which does not always appear". He continued: "This isn't just a narration of a performance. This is performance."

World Ballet Day Partners

The company's worldwide associates for International Ballet Day feature the National Ballet of Canada and the Australian Ballet. The companies will furthermore offer availability to backstage footage, preparations and recently created pieces – transmitted live via their official platform.