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This prestigious ballet company has long made available headphones with descriptive narration so that blind audience members could follow the performance on stage. Currently, in a groundbreaking production, the complete crowd will listen to such descriptions within a piece that explores how blindness can redefine our reactions to feeling, sound and dramatic expression.

Visually Impaired Artist Collaborates with Famous Dance Creators

Devon Healey, a blind artist, is working with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, together with other dance creators, and musician Max Richter in creating a fresh Royal Ballet work that will debut on 12 November, International Ballet Day, as declared on Thursday.

Through her work, the artist is guided by a ambition to illustrate how visual impairment and disability can present an alternative type of awareness for everyone. Her “immersive descriptive audio”, woven with the score, establishes the heart of the production on stage.

"Creating world-class ballet and opera for everyone" is a guiding principle of the the organization. Under the director, the Royal Ballet's director, the company is focusing on "radical accessibility – inviting creators and patrons to experience ballet in life-changing innovative methods," he stated.

Various Choreographers Work on New Performance

The fresh production is being created by choreographer Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, in addition to McGregor, each collaborating with the blind artist.

Robert Binet, the organizer of this production, commented: "International Ballet Day was created on the principle of access. After a ten years, we're pushing that concept more to examine how disabled viewpoints can shape our performance style, and encourage patrons of all abilities and backgrounds to experience dance in innovative methods."

Having worked with the artist in Canadian venues and Australia, he understood that sighted people who had experienced Healey’s spoken descriptions felt it helped them grasp dance, which can appear so abstract.

Inspiring Partnership Of Expert and Amateur Dancers

In one dance piece, the company's performer Leo Dixon will dance with Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been blind from childhood and who had previously believed that dance was "mainly for those who can see". But the dancer has discovered that it truly "involves a lot of feeling and sentiments" and taps into senses, "sight-based and other sensory".

The dancer's personal story of earlier losing his way on his way home and using the sunlight to direct his way back had motivated a duet in which the professional dancer becomes the "gentle warmth of the sunlight around his partner as they dance in unison," Malcomson said.

"This occurred in the afternoon and I had a feeling that the sunlight should be shining from the west. So, if I faced the sunlight, even though I wouldn’t see the rays itself, I could feel the temperature … So I persisted in walking to the western direction …. It guided me home. The sunshine was a great guide to me. The sun could be a good symbol. So the story developed from there."

Visual Impairment Offers Unique Connection with Dance

The blind artist, an scholar of disability studies at the University of Toronto, commented: "Blindness and being blind encourages a dynamic bond with dance in a way that is comparable to a expert performer's relationship with their body and dance."

In partnering with the performers, the artist was seeking to convey what "they’re experiencing in their body, something that’s just not accessible through sight," she explained. "I talk with the performers to get a sense of how they’re feeling in their physical self, where their breathing is, what they consider, how their muscles are experiencing.

"Working together with the choreographers [and] attire, lighting, set and sound creators, the perceptions and creativity of blindness are always there as we, visually impaired and sighted persons, establish a connection through our passion of dance and dance. It is this innovation and passion that I attempt to integrate into the detailed narration. It is a cooperation of the perceptions directed by blindness."

She noted: "While the sight of the ballet, the beautiful visual feast, is there facing the viewers, there is much that they miss or valuing, and it is blindness that is inviting seeing and blind audience members alike into the unseen. What I wish is that, when audience members depart, they experience dance in a distinct way, and they’re also feeling the presence, and listening to the viewpoints of, blindness in fresh and dynamic ways."

Composer The Composer on Sound Descriptions

Richter, whose works have amassed more than 3.5bn streams, commented the audio descriptions established a rapport between visual impairment and vision "through a soundscape, giving voice to that which remains unseen". He noted: "It is not simply a narration of a production. This is the performance itself."

World Dance Day Collaborators

The company's global collaborators for World Ballet Day feature the National Ballet of Canada and the Australian dance troupe. The troupes will additionally offer entry to backstage footage, rehearsals and recently created works – transmitted live via their official platform.