Birmingham Royal Ballet Announces BRB2 Company and UK Tour

Birmingham Royal Ballet has announced the launch of its new company BRB2 and its inaugural UK tour in April - June 2023.

BRB2 is a new initiative where BRB pro-actively seeks out some of the best young ballet graduates from around the world to join a two-year performance programme, providing vital employment for the next generation of exceptional ballet dancers (aged 18-22) to transition from training into jobs at BRB or other leading ballet companies, impacting the dance sector worldwide. It will act as a magnet for the best UK and international talent, providing extensive training and professional experience, sending developed, professional dancers back into the dance sector and providing role models for the next generation. BRB2 is inspired by Dutch National Ballet Junior Company and ABT Studio Company.

The BRB2 dancers will not only train and perform with the whole Birmingham Royal Ballet company in major productions, but they will also develop their own touring programme, supported by senior members of BRBs ballet staff.

In most ballet companies new joiners and artists can spend years working their way up to dancing principal roles; this showcase puts the spotlight on the new talent in Birmingham Royal Ballet's ranks in an exciting, crowd-pleasing and challenging way. In this first year six of the company are current BRB dancers and six the founding group of BRB2. In 2024, the founders will graduate and, in their second year, be joined by six new dancers - providing an ongoing platform for brilliant young talent to be showcased across the UK. The full Royal Ballet SInfonia conducted by Paul Murphy will perform live on opening night in Northampton and for the rest of the tour there will be specially recorded music with End of Time and Dying Swan performed live by Jeanette Wong (Head of Piano) and Antonio Novais (Principal Cellist).

Carlos Acosta said: 'It is with great pleasure that I present my Classical Selection and introduce you to Birmingham Royal Ballet's rising stars in our exciting new company, BRB2. Since arriving at BRB, I have wanted to develop a young company. A company with its own artistic identity in which some of our finest young dancers would not only have the opportunity to take on lead roles of their own, but which would also provide a structure for brilliant young dancers graduating from ballet schools around the world to gain real-life experience with a touring ballet company. With the support of David and Mary Laing, The Kirby Laing Foundation and The Linbury Trust I am thrilled that we can bring this dream to life in 2023!

BRB has a strong track record in launching the careers of some of the world's most renowned dancers, who have developed their skills at BRB and then gone on to become global stars. BRB is proud that Darcey Bussell, Leanne Benjamin and Miyako Yoshida, amongst others, had their first professional jobs at Birmingham Royal Ballet. BRB2 will help the company give opportunities to more of the brightest stars of the future.'

BRB's First Soloist, Kit Holder, will lead BRB2 as Artistic Coordinator in this first year. This role has been created to support Kit's professional development and the continued development of his leadership skills. Along with Carlos Acosta, Kit has developed the exciting programme featuring favourite pieces from classical ballet across over a century of performance.

Kit Holder said: 'BRB2 will not only ensure that young professional dancers joining Birmingham Royal Ballet will be ready to deliver world-class performances in a wide range of roles, but they, along with those going on to other companies and organisations, will be ready to make a positive contribution to the wider dance world.'

The dancers for the first cohort were selected by Carlos and Dominic Antonucci, BRB's Assistant Director. The founding members of BRB2 are Oscar Kempsey-Fagg (UK), Mason King (UK/New Zealand), Frieda Kaden (Germany), Mailene Katoch (France) and Jack Easton (USA).

Joining them for the first UK tour will be Enrique Bejarano Vidal (Mexico), Olivia Chang Clarke (UK), Regan Hutsell (USA), Sofia Linares (Spain), Eric Pinto Cata (UK), Lucy Waine (UK) and soloist Riku Ito (Japan).

The programme for the 2023 UK tour includes: Pas de Deux from: Frederick Ashton's Rhapsody - premiered at the Royal Ballet in 1980 by Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lesley Collier, Collier herself will be rehearsing the BRB2 duo who will perform this piece; August Bournonville's most famous ballet La Sylphide; the love duet from Swan Lake - probably the most famous pas de deux in ballet; Carlos Acosta's take on Fokine's The Dying Swan which features two dancers instead of one (hence The Dying Swans plural) and is double the usual length; Marius Petipa's Diana and Actaeon pas de deux; Ben Stevenson's End of Time set to Rachmaninoff's gloriously melancholic Sonata in G Minor (3rd movement).

In the second half Gustavo Mollajoli's A Buenos Aires celebrates the spirit of tango to music by Astor Piazzolla; the iconic Edith Piaf's Je ne regrette rien choreographed by Ben Van Cauwenbergh, whose Jacques Brel-inspired humorous gala piece Les Bourgeois will also feature. Acosta's choreography for the Carmen pas de deux promises to raise the temperature with Bizet's heat-seeking score and Will Tuckett's solo Nisi Dominus will reinstate some sense of calm to proceedings before Jorges Garcia's Majisimo closes out the programme, performed to Massenet's music from Le Cid.

The BRB2 company will tour to Royal and Derngate Northampton (25 April); Theatre Royal Nottingham (28 & 29 April); New Theatre Peterborough (3 & 4 May); the Linbury London (12 June); and Wolverhampton Grand (19 June).

Tour Dates

Northampton Royal & Derngate
25 April 7.30pm - full live orchestra

Theatre Royal Nottingham
28 April 7.30pm; 29 April 2.30pm & 7.30pm

New Theatre Peterborough
3 & 4 May 7.30pm

The Linbury Theatre, London
13 & 14 June 7.30pm

Wolverhampton Grand
24 & 25 June 7.30pm

Programme

Rhapsody - pas de deux
Choreography: Frederick Ashton
Music: Sergey Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini

La Sylphide - Act II pas de deux
Choreography: August Bournonville
Music: Herman Lovenskiold

Swan Lake - Act II Pas de deux
Music: Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

The Dying Swans
Choreography: Carlos Acosta (after Michel Fokine and Michel Descombes)
Music: Camille Saint-Saens

Diana and Actaeon - pas de deux
Choreography: Marius Petipa, Agrippina Vaganova
Music: Cesare Pugni

End of Time - pas de deux
Choreography: Ben Stevenson
Music: Sergey Rachmaninoff, Cello Sonata in G Minor (3rd movement)

Interval

A Buenos Aires
Choreography: Gustavo Mollajoli
Music: Astor Piazzolla, Primavera Portena

Je ne regrette rien
Choreography: Ben Van Cauwenbergh
Music: Edith Piaf's Je ne regrette rien

Les Bourgeois
Choreography: Ben Van Cauwenbergh
Music: Jacques Brel's Les Bourgeois

Carmen
Choreography: Carlos Acosta
Music: Bizet - Shchedrin

Nisi Dominus
Choreography: Will Tuckett
Music: Claudio Monteverdi (from Vespers)

Majisimo
Choreography: Georges Garcia
Music: Jules Massenet (from Le Cid)

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