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The Royal Ballet traditionally offered audio devices with audio descriptions so that blind audience members could track the action on stage. Presently, through a revolutionary production, the entire crowd will hear such descriptions within a piece that explores how visual impairment can reshape our responses to sensation, music and storytelling.

Blind Creator Partners with Famous Dance Creators

Devon Healey, a blind artist, is partnering with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, together with other dance creators, and composer Max Richter in creating a fresh ballet company commission that will launch on 12 November, World Ballet Day, as revealed this week.

Through her work, the artist is guided by a wish to show how visual impairment and physical challenge can offer an different form of awareness for each individual. Her “immersive descriptive audio”, blended with the score, creates the core of the performance on stage.

"Producing top-tier dance and musical theater for all" is a motto of the the organization. Under Kevin O’Hare, the Royal Ballet's director, the company is focusing on "complete inclusion – inviting creators and viewers to discover ballet in transformative fresh approaches," he said.

Several Dance Creators Collaborate on Fresh Production

The recent commission is being designed by choreographer Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, as well as McGregor, each partnering with the blind artist.

Robert Binet, the director of this work, commented: "World Ballet Day was created on the principle of accessibility. After a decade, we're extending that notion deeper to explore how impaired outlooks can influence our creative medium, and welcome viewers of all abilities and backgrounds to encounter ballet in innovative methods."

After collaborating with the artist in Canadian venues and Australian locations, he realized that individuals who can see who had experienced Healey’s audio narration believed it assisted them comprehend dance, which can look so complex.

Inspiring Collaboration Between Professional and Non-Professional Dancers

In one performance, the Royal Ballet performer Leo Dixon will partner Takashi Kikuchi, an non-professional performer who has been sightless from childhood and who had previously believed that dance was "primarily for individuals with vision". But Kikuchi has realized that it in fact "entails a lot of emotion and sentiments" and activates senses, "sight-based and non-visual".

The dancer's personal story of previously getting lost on his way home and depending on the sun to orient his way back had inspired a performance in which Dixon represents the "gentle warmth of the sun around Kikuchi as they dance in unison," the choreographer stated.

"This occurred in the afternoon and I had a intuition that the sunlight should be radiating from the west. So, if I turned toward the sunlight, even though I didn't perceive the sunlight itself, I could sense the temperature … So I persisted in walking to the west …. It guided me home. The sun was a good helper to me. The sun could be a meaningful representation. So the tale emerged from there."

Visual Impairment Presents Distinct Connection with Movement

The blind artist, an assistant professor of disability research at the Toronto university, stated: "Blindness and lacking sight invites a dynamic connection with motion in a way that is like a professional dancer’s connection with their physical self and movement."

In partnering with the dancers, she was attempting to communicate what "they’re experiencing in their body, something that’s just not available through vision," she explained. "I converse with the dancers to get a understanding of how they feel in their body, where their breathing is, what they’re thinking, how their muscles are experiencing.

"Partnering with the dance creators [and] clothing, lighting, stage design and audio creators, the viewpoints and artistry of visual impairment are ever present as we, visually impaired and seeing people, develop a relationship through our affection of motion and performance. It is this innovation and passion that I strive to blend into the spoken commentary. It is a partnership of the faculties guided by visual impairment."

The artist noted: "Even though the vision of the ballet, the beautiful visual feast, is present facing the audience, there is much that they’re not accessing or understanding, and it is visual impairment that is encouraging sighted and blind audience members both into the hidden. What I wish is that, when patrons leave, they experience dance in a new way, and they’re also sensing the existence, and perceiving the perceptions of, blindness in innovative and dynamic ways."

Musician Max Richter on Sound Narration

The composer, whose works have gathered more than billions of digital listens, said the spoken narration formed a relationship between blindness and sight "via a audio environment, giving voice to that which remains unseen". He noted: "This isn't just a explanation of a performance. It is the performance itself."

World Dance Day Partners

The company's international collaborators for World Ballet Day comprise the Canadian ballet company and the Australian dance troupe. The companies will furthermore offer availability to exclusive material, preparations and newly commissioned works – transmitted as it happens via online channels.