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This prestigious ballet company traditionally offered headphones with spoken commentary so that visually impaired patrons could track the movement on stage. Now, via a revolutionary performance, the complete audience will hear such descriptions within a work that examines how visual impairment can transform our reactions to sensation, sound and narrative.

Blind Artist Works with Famous Choreographers

The blind artist, a blind professional, is working with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, among other dance creators, and musician Max Richter in creating a new Royal Ballet work that will launch on 12 November, World Ballet Day, as declared recently.

Through her work, the artist is guided by a ambition to show how blindness and physical challenge can present an alternative form of awareness for all people. Her detailed audio narration, integrated with the music, creates the heart of the performance on stage.

"Making world-class ballet and musical theater for everyone" is a motto of the the organization. Under Kevin O’Hare, the Royal Ballet's director, the organization is zeroing in on "total access – welcoming performers and audiences to experience dance in life-changing innovative methods," he stated.

Several Dance Creators Collaborate on Fresh Work

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

Robert Binet, the director of this work, said: "World Ballet Day was created on the principle of inclusion. After a decade, we're extending that notion further to explore how disabled viewpoints can shape our art form, and welcome patrons of all abilities and experiences to experience ballet in fresh approaches."

Following partnerships with the artist in Canadian venues and Australian locations, the curator understood that individuals who can see who had encountered Healey’s spoken descriptions believed it aided them understand dance, which can appear so complex.

Touching Partnership Between Professional and Amateur Dancers

In one duet, the Royal Ballet dancer Leo Dixon will perform alongside Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been sightless from childhood and who had always thought that ballet was "primarily for those who can see". But Kikuchi has realized that it in fact "entails a lot of emotion and emotions" and activates senses, "sight-based and other sensory".

The dancer's personal story of earlier losing his way on his way home and using the sun to orient his way back had inspired a dance piece in which the professional dancer embodies the "warm breath of the sun around Kikuchi as they perform as one," Malcomson explained.

"This occurred in the afternoon and I had a sense that the sun should be beaming from the western sky. So, if I faced the sunlight, even though I didn't perceive the rays itself, I could feel the warmth … So I kept walking to the west …. It guided me home. The sun was a good guide to me. The sunlight could be a meaningful symbol. So the tale developed from there."

Blindness Offers Unique Relationship with Dance

Healey, an academic of disability studies at the Toronto university, commented: "Visual impairment and being blind fosters a dynamic bond with dance in a way that is like a professional dancer’s connection with their body and motion."

In partnering with the performers, she was striving to express what "they’re experiencing in their physical being, something that’s just not perceivable through vision," she noted. "I converse with the performers to get a understanding of how they’re feeling in their physical self, where their breathing is, what they consider, how their muscles are experiencing.

"Partnering with the dance creators [and] clothing, stage lights, set and music creators, the perceptions and artistry of visual impairment are ever present as we, blind and sighted people, develop a relationship through our love of motion and dance. It is this innovation and passion that I try to blend into the immersive descriptive audio. It is a collaboration of the senses guided by visual impairment."

She added: "While the sight of the dance, the gorgeous spectacle, is available facing the viewers, there is much that they miss or appreciating, and it is visual impairment that is welcoming seeing and visually impaired viewers both into the hidden. What I hope is that, when patrons depart, they feel dance in a new way, and they’re also sensing the existence, and hearing the understandings of, visual impairment in fresh and active ways."

Composer Max Richter on Sound Descriptions

The composer, whose compositions have accumulated more than 3.5bn streams, said the spoken narration created a connection between blindness and vision "via a audio environment, offering narration to that which is not always visible". He noted: "This isn't simply a narration of a show. It is performance."

International Dance Event Partners

The Royal Ballet’s international associates for World Ballet Day include the Canadian ballet company and the Australian Ballet. The troupes will furthermore provide access to exclusive footage, rehearsals and freshly produced productions – streamed in real-time via online channels.