11 September 2009

Five heroes and heroines of Birmingham Royal Ballet's 2009-10 season.

Prince Florimund

The Sleeping Beauty
The Prince Charming to Princess Aurora's Sleeping Beauty, it is Florimund who finally breaks the spell that has seen her sleep for 100 years. Prince Florimund shows courage, determination and general derring-do, battling through a thick and foreboding forest conjured up by the wicked Carabosse (surely a contender for top villain of the season).

Carabosse does everything she can to stop him, having already been responsible for the young girl's century-long slumber. However, this hero is true of heart and makes it to Aurora's bedside for the famous fairytale kiss.

Cyrano

Cyrano
With a billowing cape, a secret identity and not one but TWO reliable sidekicks (friends Reganeau and Le Bret) Cyrano is a classic comic book hero. A keen wordsmith as well as respected soldier, the only thing mightier than his sword is his pen.

But every superhero has a weakness, and Cyrano's is his hefty nose, which cripples his confidence with Roxane, the woman he loves. He finally reveals his feelings under a secret identity, when illiterate love-rival Christian asks Cyrano to covertly compose love letters to the girl on his behalf. Cyrano agrees, only to see Roxane fall in love and Christian fall on the battlefield.

Unable to find it in himself to reveal to the grieving Roxane that it was he - and not Christian - who wrote the words that she fell in love with, Cyrano takes the secret to his death bed.

Clara

The Nutcracker
With a magician's spell causing her parents' living room to grow around her, Clara is beset by a now man-sized rodent army. While the Nutcracker Prince and his battalion of enchanted toy soldiers leap to her aid with swords and cannons, the battle is a close one, and eventually it is Clara who comes to the Prince's aid.

Spotting King Rat about to run him through, she raps a nicely-timed ballet shoe against the back of the mousey muskateers head. The surprise stuns the rat long enough for the toy soldiers to gain the advantage and the day is saved. For this, Clara more than earns her status as Heroine, and the magical journey that follows in Peter Wright's well-loved Christmas classic.

Prince Siegfried

Swan Lake
A tragically flawed but nevertheless romantic hero, Siegfried's biggest mistake is that the young prince allows himself to be ruled by his heart and not his head. Rejecting every suitor that his mother has presented to him, the young Prince instead falls head-over-heels in love with an enchanted maiden that he meets whilst out hunting one evening.

With the girl cursed to spend each day as a swan until someone breaks the spell by declaring their love for her, Siegfried's unflinching commitment could be just the thing to save her.

But so unquestioning is his love for Odette, his judgement clouded by her perceived perfection, that he critically fails to notice that it is an imposter standing before him at the moment of declaration.

Both victims of deception by the wicked sorceror who cursed Odette in the first place, the two are separated until their deaths when they are reunited in heaven.

Birmingham

20 Years Celebration
A deeply personal entry for the Company, Birmingham is our hero and our home, having welcomed us as new arrivals in 1990, and bouyed and supported us ever since. Following autumn and winter 2009 seasons created entirely at our base in the West Midlands, 2010 marks our 20th anniversary as Birmingham Royal Ballet.

To celebrate, we'll be presenting three very special galas to tell the story of our time here. While ballet is a centuries-old artform, we've come a long way in just two decades. And a great part of that success is because of what we've always been able to come home to.