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The Royal Ballet traditionally provided audio devices with descriptive narration so that blind audience members could track the movement on stage. Now, through a revolutionary performance, the whole crowd will hear such descriptions within a piece that explores how blindness can transform our reactions to feeling, music and storytelling.

Visually Impaired Artist Partners with Famous Dance Creators

The blind artist, a blind professional, is working with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, alongside other choreographers, and musician Max Richter in developing a new Royal Ballet commission that will premiere on 12 November, World Ballet Day, as announced on Thursday.

Within her creative practice, Healey is guided by a desire to illustrate how blindness and physical challenge can present an unique mode of understanding for each individual. Her rich spoken descriptions, integrated with the composition, establishes the heart of the production on stage.

"Producing exceptional ballet and opera for all" is a motto of the the organization. Under the director, the Royal Ballet's director, the organization is concentrating on "radical accessibility – welcoming creators and viewers to discover dance in life-changing fresh approaches," he explained.

Multiple Choreographers Collaborate on New Performance

The new work is being created by choreographer Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, alongside McGregor, all working with the blind artist.

The curator, the organizer of this production, stated: "International Ballet Day was founded on the idea of accessibility. After a ten years, we're extending that concept more to examine how challenged viewpoints can mold our creative medium, and welcome viewers of all abilities and histories to discover ballet in new ways."

Following partnerships with Healey in Canadian venues and Australia, the curator realized that those with vision who had experienced the artist's spoken descriptions felt it assisted them comprehend dance, which can seem so complex.

Touching Collaboration Of Professional and Non-Professional Performers

In a particular dance piece, the Royal Ballet performer Leo Dixon will partner Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been blind since birth and who had always thought that dance was "mostly for sighted people". But Kikuchi has realized that it actually "entails a lot of sensation and sentiments" and engages senses, "visual and other sensory".

The dancer's individual experience of earlier becoming disoriented on his way home and using the sun to guide his way back had influenced a performance in which Dixon represents the "gentle warmth of the sunlight around Kikuchi as they move together," Malcomson stated.

"This occurred during the day and I had a feeling that the sun should be radiating from the western sky. So, if I faced the sunlight, even though I wouldn’t see the rays itself, I could feel the heat … So I kept walking to the western direction …. It led me home. The sun was a excellent helper to me. The sun could be a powerful symbol. So the tale developed from there."

Blindness Presents Special Relationship with Movement

Healey, an academic of disability research at the University of Toronto, commented: "Visual impairment and being blind fosters a dynamic relationship with motion in a way that is similar to a expert performer's relationship with their physical self and motion."

In working with the dancers, the artist was striving to convey what "they perceive in their body, something that’s just not perceivable through vision," she noted. "I talk with the dancers to get a understanding of how they’re feeling in their body, where their respiration is, what they consider, how their physical form are experiencing.

"Working together with the choreographers [and] attire, illumination, set and music artists, the perceptions and creativity of visual impairment are always there as we, blind and sighted individuals, establish a connection through our passion of movement and dance. It is this innovation and affection that I attempt to integrate into the immersive descriptive audio. It is a partnership of the senses led by visual impairment."

The artist added: "While the sight of the performance, the stunning visual feast, is present before the patrons, there is much that they miss or understanding, and it is blindness that is inviting seeing and visually impaired patrons equally into the invisible. What I desire is that, when viewers depart, they sense performance in a distinct way, and they’re also feeling the existence, and perceiving the perceptions of, visual impairment in fresh and dynamic ways."

Composer Max Richter on Sound Descriptions

The composer, whose compositions have gathered more than billions of digital listens, commented the descriptive commentary formed a connection between blindness and vision "through a audio environment, providing expression to that which does not always appear". He noted: "This isn't just a description of a production. This is the performance itself."

International Dance Day Collaborators

The Royal Ballet’s international partners for World Ballet Day feature the Canadian ballet company and the Australian dance troupe. The troupes will additionally supply access to backstage video, practice sessions and freshly produced pieces – streamed as it happens via the event website.