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The Royal Ballet traditionally offered headphones with audio descriptions so that sightless patrons could follow the performance on stage. Currently, in a innovative performance, the complete gathering will hear such narration within a piece that investigates how blindness can reshape our responses to experience, audio and storytelling.

Visually Impaired Artist Works with Celebrated Dance Creators

The blind artist, a visually impaired professional, is collaborating with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, among other choreographers, and composer Max Richter in developing a new ballet company work that will launch on 12 November, International Ballet Day, as revealed this week.

Within her creative practice, Healey is guided by a ambition to show how visual impairment and disability can offer an alternative mode of understanding for everyone. Her rich spoken descriptions, integrated with the music, forms the center of the production on stage.

"Creating exceptional dance and musical theater for all" is a mission statement of the the organization. Under Kevin O’Hare, the company's leader, the company is focusing on "radical accessibility – welcoming artists and patrons to encounter dance in life-changing innovative methods," he explained.

Several Dance Creators Work on New Performance

The recent commission is being created by Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, in addition to Wayne McGregor, each working with the blind artist.

The curator, the organizer of this production, said: "International Ballet Day was established on the principle of access. Following a decade, we're expanding that notion more to examine how disabled outlooks can mold our art form, and encourage audiences of every capability and backgrounds to experience dance in innovative methods."

Having worked with the artist in Canada and Australian locations, the curator understood that sighted people who had experienced the artist's spoken descriptions felt it aided them grasp dance, which can appear so abstract.

Inspiring Collaboration Of Professional and Non-Professional Performers

In one dance piece, the company's performer Leo Dixon will perform alongside Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been visually impaired from birth and who had always thought that dance was "mostly for those who can see". But Kikuchi has understood that it in fact "entails a lot of feeling and feelings" and activates perceptions, "visual and non-sight".

The dancer's unique narrative of once losing his way on his way home and relying on the sunlight to orient his way back had inspired a performance in which Dixon embodies the "gentle warmth of the sun around his partner as they move together," the choreographer said.

"This occurred in the afternoon and I had a intuition that the sunlight should be shining from the west. So, if I faced the sunshine, even though I wouldn’t see the sunlight itself, I could sense the heat … So I persisted in walking to the west …. It guided me home. The sunshine was a good helper to me. The sun could be a powerful representation. So the story originated from there."

Visual Impairment Offers Distinct Connection with Dance

The blind artist, an assistant professor of disability research at the Toronto university, said: "Visual impairment and lacking sight invites a active bond with motion in a way that is similar to a professional dancer’s relationship with their body and movement."

In partnering with the performers, the artist was seeking to communicate what "they feel in their body, 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 physical self, where their breathing is, what they think, how their muscles are sensing.

"Working together with the dance creators [and] attire, lighting, stage design and sound designers, the understandings and artistry of blindness are constantly visible as we, blind and sighted people, build a connection through our passion of motion and performance. It is this artistry and affection that I try to weave into the immersive descriptive audio. It is a cooperation of the faculties directed by visual impairment."

The artist noted: "Although the view of the performance, the stunning display, is present in front of the viewers, there is a great deal that they overlook or appreciating, and it is blindness that is welcoming sighted and visually impaired patrons equally into the hidden. What I desire is that, when patrons exit, they sense dance in a different way, and they’re also sensing the being, and listening to the viewpoints of, visual impairment in new and active ways."

Musician Max Richter on Audio Narration

The composer, whose recordings have amassed more than 3.5bn online plays, said the spoken narration created a connection between blindness and vision "by means of a soundscape, giving voice to that which does not always appear". He added: "It is not simply a explanation of a performance. It is performance."

World Dance Event Collaborators

The Royal Ballet’s worldwide associates for World Ballet Day include the Canadian ballet company and the Australian Ballet. The companies will additionally provide access to behind-the-scenes footage, practice sessions and newly commissioned pieces – streamed live via the event website.