Following the announcement that Northern Ballet is to première an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 by Jonathan Watkins in September 2015, the Leeds-based Company, celebrating its 45th anniversary year, has released details of its plans for spring 2015: a season of love stories, Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby.
The company, recently awarded Best Company at the Taglioni European Ballet Awards, will open its 2015 season in Edinburgh in March with the UK première of Jean-Christophe Maillot's Ballets de Monte Carlo production of Romeo and Juliet, the first time that a British company has ever performed work by the dance-maker who has recently been invited by the Bolshoi Ballet to create a new version of The Taming of the Shrew.
Romeo and Juliet will also be performed in the Company’s home city of Leeds before returning to the repertoire for a national tour in 2016.
In celebration of its 45th anniversary year, Northern Ballet will hold a Sapphire Gala at Leeds Grand Theatre on 14 March 2015. The gala will include performances by international guest artists as well as Northern Ballet dancers. Further details will be announced.
Later in March, Northern Ballet will tour Wuthering Heights, set to music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, composer of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and Cleopatra, to Sheffield, Southampton and Milton Keynes.
To reflect the company’s ambitions to have more of a presence in the capital, Northern Ballet will tour to London twice in 2015.
The roaring twenties will come to life in The Great Gatsby when it returns to Sadler’s Wells in March following a sell-out season in 2013, and to Norwich in April.
In May, Northern Ballet will perform a Mixed Programme showcasing the versatility of the Company at its home in Leeds and in London at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Studio Theatre following a sell-out inaugural visit to the theatre in 2014. The Mixed Programme at the Linbury will include the London première of Kenneth Tindall's The Architect.
In addition to working with new choreographers Maillot and Watkins, Northern Ballet will also hold a Choreographic Laboratory at its home in Leeds during May and June. Emerging choreographers will be invited to work with Northern Ballet’s talented dancers to create new narrative dance material. Further details will be announced.
Northern Ballet will also return to Leeds and London with a new Mixed Programme and will tour their latest children’s ballet Elves & the Shoemaker nationally.
After receiving an increase in funding from Arts Council England for 2015-2018, Northern Ballet will also introduce a new strand of touring, widening the reach of the company and developing audiences across the UK.
Northern Ballet will perform Madame Butterfly and Christopher Hampson’s Perpetuum Mobile at nine venues for the first time, providing the opportunity for an additional 18,000 people to see the company.
David Nixon OBE said: "it’s an exciting time for Northern Ballet to be able to invest in the future of British dance by performing and creating new work and touring to new theatres bringing world-class dance to the doorsteps of people who may never have been to the ballet before.
"Broadening our range of work not only enriches what we are able to offer to audiences but also provides opportunities for our dancers to work with new choreographers and demonstrate the versatility of our company.
"The increase in funding we received will allow us to further our objectives which include working with new choreographers, touring more widely and developing audiences offering people everywhere more opportunities to experience captivating performances that are inspiring, emotional and intensely dramatic."