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Five pieces of art

29 May 2011

Birmingham Royal Ballet have been involved in creating plenty of pieces beyond the sphere of dance. From commissions to collaborations to creative inspirations, here are five of our favourites:

1. Robert Heindel's dance paintings

'In terms of dance, he is the artist that everyone has followed, that everyone has emulated', says Birmingham Royal Ballet Director David Bintley of the artist Robert Heindel. 'Everyone who is painting dance now has taken something from Bob. For me he transcended dance, because he understood it, in a way not a lot of other people really do. But Bob just knew what it was about because he'd hung around with dancers long enough to understand what it was all about.'

Heindel became a friend of Birmingham Royal Ballet after painting a number of works based on David's work 'Still Life' at the Penguin Café. He went on to produce many more pieces inspired by the Company, including this one from Carmina burana.

2. The Pointe Blank project

In a first-of-its-kind project for the Company, Birmingham Royal Ballet recently invited 27 artists and designers to create original artwork based upon the story - but not necessarily the ballet production - of Coppélia.

The results will be posted at www.pointeblank.co.uk from Monday 13 June 2011, but if you take a look before then you'll see sneak previews of the work-in-progress in the blog section of the site, such as this one by Jamie Littler!

3. Derek Skinner's Hobson's Choice sculpture

As well as being home to Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Hippodrome is home to a vast array of public art. The corridors hold a wealth of paintings and prints, and the safety curtain in the auditorium is hand-painted, making it the largest piece of hanging art in any UK theatre.

However the first item that you'll see when you pay a visit is this bronze sculpture opposite the booking desk. Sculpted by Derek Skinner in 2003, it depicts former Company principal Leticia Müller and now-Ballet Master Michael O'Hare in David Bintley's Hobson's Choice, and was presented to mark Francis C. Graves's retirement from the theatre's Board of Directors after 25 years in the role.

4. Jasper Conran's tutu for Tombeaux

1993's Tombeaux was the first collaboration between Birmingham Royal Ballet's Director David Bintley and Designer Jasper Conran. David's request that Conran 'reinvent the tutu' saw him create a dress of black and midnight blue, the colours their brightest at the tips of the skirt, fading to absolute darkness at the waist. Conran would subsequently produce the epic designs for David's Edward II, but this dress was his direct response to ballet.

5. John Macfarlane's Nutcracker designs

John Macfarlane's designs for Cinderella were an obvious highlight of our Creating Cinderella blog, but here you can see one of the paintings that he did for Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker back in 1990.

Speaking in 2010, David explained: ‘When John does a costume design it isn’t just a design; it’s a character sketch too. He’s told me that sometimes when he starts work on the costumes he gets hung up on the face, which is the one thing he doesn’t actually need to worry about! But of course he’s painting entire characters, as opposed to simply what a particular dancer will be wearing.’

You'll be able to see these characters take to the stage again in winter 2011, when The Nutcracker returns to the Birmingham Hippodrome stage.

ENDS

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