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Five previews of the 2013-14 season

18 April 2013

Birmingham Royal Ballet's 2013-14 home season at Birmingham Hippodrome has been revealed, and features the return of a number of audience favourites. As a taste of what's to come, here you can see clips of studio rehearsals for previous performances of five of the works featured.

1. Sleeping Beauty: The Bluebird pas de deux

All good fairytale ballets end with a celebration, and the party at the end of Sleeping Beauty is arguably the biggest. With the Prince having woken the Princess with a kiss, the two of them are greeted at home by a host of other fairytale characters, including Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots.

In the clip above, you can see Ambra Vallo and Mathias Dingman rehearsing a duet performed by two more characters at the ball - a pair of fleet-footed bluebirds!

Watch out for: ex-dancer and now Ballet Master Dominic Antonucci at 2:00, who was coaching the couple that afternoon.

Click here to find out more about Sleeping Beauty.

2. 'Still Life' at the Penguin Café: The Texas Kangaroo Rat

Here you can see ex-Company dancer Alexander Campbell rehearsing the role of the Texas Kangaroo Rat in 2009. One of the energetic highlights from David Bintley's own carnival of animals, it sees the young rodent use every scrap of energy in his body to dance and scamper around the stage. Other animals featured in the ballet include a Zebra, a Ram and a Woolly Monkey...

Watch out for: Principal Joseph Caley, who also dances the role, rehearsing the same choreography in the background.

Click here to find out more about 'Still Life' at the Penguin Café.

3. Slaughter on Tenth Avenue: The Stripper and the Hoofer

The dance equivalent of a play within a play, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue sees a young male dancer targeted by gangsters, who send an assassin to shoot him on-stage as soon as he finishes a performance. Discovering their plot, he refuses to stop, and frantically extends his solo until the police can come to his aid.

In this far-more-relaxed rehearsal video however, you can see exactly what's got him into this mess: he's fallen in love with the mob boss's moll. With the two of them (played in this instance by Robert Parker and Céline Gittens) not realising the danger they are in, they dance the slinky, seductive duet that you see here.

Watch out for: David Bintley at 3:10, peeking through the door to check on progress!

Click here to find out more about our Three of a Kind triple bill.

4. Elite Syncopations: Bathena Concert Waltz

Elite Syncopations sees a string of couples taking part in a witty rag-time dance competition, each performing to a different tune. Here Delia Matthews and Benjamin Soerel dance an effortless light-hearted waltz, which ends with a fantastic upside-down lift...

Watch out for: a rare blooper. When the logo appears at the end of the clip, keep watching for an alternative opening shot where Benjamin's commanding click of the fingers reduces Delia to momentary giggles!

Click here to find out more about our Three of a Kind triple bill.

5. The Nutcracker: The Sugar Plum Fairy

Here you can see three ballerinas - Elisha Willis, Nao Sakuma and Jenna Roberts - in rehearsals for The Nutcracker. In the clip they're performing a solo by the Sugar Plum Fairy, the magical ballerina figure that Clara turns into at the end of the ballet.

Watch out for: A variety of Nutcracker props in the background during Nao Sakuma's segment, including the sun and moon cabinets used by the magician Drosselmeyer for one of his illusions, and the ladder used to light the candles on the Christmas tree.

Click here to find out more about The Nutcracker.

ENDS

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