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The Royal Ballet for years made available headphones with descriptive narration so that visually impaired viewers could understand the action on stage. Presently, through a revolutionary new work, the complete audience will hear such narration within a piece that investigates how blindness can redefine our perceptions to feeling, audio and storytelling.

Visually Impaired Artist Collaborates with Famous Choreographers

Devon Healey, a blind artist, is partnering with Sir Wayne McGregor, among other dance creators, and composer the celebrated composer in producing a recent Royal Ballet production that will launch on November 12th, International Ballet Day, as declared on Thursday.

In her art, Healey is driven by a wish to illustrate how visual impairment and physical challenge can offer an unique mode of perception for everyone. Her detailed audio narration, integrated with the music, forms the heart of the production on stage.

"Making exceptional ballet and musical theater for all" is a mission statement of the the organization. Under the director, the company's director, the troupe is zeroing in on "complete inclusion – inviting performers and audiences to encounter ballet in life-changing innovative methods," he stated.

Various Choreographers Partner on Fresh Performance

The fresh production is being designed by Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, as well as Wayne McGregor, every one working with Healey.

Robert Binet, the director of this commission, commented: "World Ballet Day was established on the idea of inclusion. After a decade, we're expanding that notion more to consider how disabled outlooks can influence our creative medium, and encourage patrons of every capability and backgrounds to experience dance in fresh approaches."

Having worked with the artist in Canadian venues and Australian locations, the curator realized that those with vision who had heard the artist's audio narration felt it assisted them understand ballet, which can seem so unclear.

Inspiring Partnership Between Professional and Amateur Performers

In one performance, the company's performer Leo Dixon will dance with Takashi Kikuchi, an non-professional performer who has been sightless from birth and who had always thought that dance was "primarily for individuals with vision". But the dancer has discovered that it in fact "involves a lot of sensation and emotions" and taps into perceptions, "sight-based and non-visual".

Kikuchi’s unique narrative of previously losing his way on his way home and depending on the sunlight to orient his way back had motivated a performance in which the professional dancer represents the "gentle warmth of the sun around his partner as they move together," Malcomson said.

"It was in the afternoon and I had a sense that the sun should be beaming from the west. So, if I faced the sunshine, even though I couldn't see the rays itself, I could sense the heat … So I persisted in walking to the western direction …. It led me home. The sun was a excellent helper to me. The sunlight could be a powerful metaphor. So the narrative emerged from there."

Visual Impairment Provides Special Connection with Dance

The blind artist, an academic of disability research at the Toronto university, stated: "Blindness and lacking sight invites a vibrant connection with movement in a way that is like a expert performer's bond with their physical self and motion."

In partnering with the performers, she was seeking to convey what "they feel in their body, something that’s just not available through looking," she said. "I converse with the performers to get a sense of how they are in their body, where their breath is, what they consider, how their body are experiencing.

"In collaboration with the choreographers [and] clothing, lighting, set and audio artists, the perceptions and creativity of visual impairment are ever present as we, blind and sighted persons, develop a rapport through our love of dance and performance. It is this innovation and love that I strive to blend into the spoken commentary. It is a cooperation of the senses led by visual impairment."

The artist added: "Even though the sight of the ballet, the stunning spectacle, is there before the viewers, there is much that they miss or valuing, and it is blindness that is inviting seeing and blind viewers both into the unseen. What I wish is that, when viewers depart, they sense dance in a distinct way, and they’re also feeling the presence, and hearing the perceptions of, blindness in new and dynamic ways."

Composer The Composer on Sound Descriptions

Richter, whose works have accumulated more than 3.5bn digital listens, said the audio descriptions established a relationship between visual impairment and vision "through a musical landscape, providing expression to that which does not always appear". He added: "It is not simply a narration of a performance. This is performance."

International Dance Event Partners

The company's worldwide partners for International Ballet Day feature the National Ballet of Canada and the Australian Ballet. The organizations will also offer entry to behind-the-scenes video, rehearsals and newly commissioned works – streamed as it happens via online channels.