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This prestigious ballet company has long provided audio devices with spoken commentary so that visually impaired audience members could track the action on stage. Presently, through a revolutionary production, the whole gathering will listen to such descriptions within a piece that explores how visual impairment can transform our perceptions to experience, sound and dramatic expression.

Visually Impaired Artist Works with Renowned Choreographers

The blind artist, a visually impaired artist, is working with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, together with other choreographers, and composer Max Richter in developing a fresh ballet company commission that will launch on 12 November, International Ballet Day, as announced this week.

Through her work, Healey is motivated by a desire to show how visual impairment and physical challenge can present an alternative form of awareness for all people. Her “immersive descriptive audio”, integrated with the score, forms the center of the production on stage.

"Making world-class ballet and musical theater for everyone" is a motto of the Royal Opera House. Under Kevin O’Hare, the company's leader, the company is zeroing in on "total access – encouraging performers and patrons to experience ballet in life-changing fresh approaches," he stated.

Multiple Choreographers Partner on New Work

The new work is being choreographed by choreographer Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, as well as Wayne McGregor, all working with the blind artist.

Robert Binet, the organizer of this commission, commented: "World Ballet Day was established on the principle of access. After a ten years, we're pushing that concept more to explore how challenged viewpoints can mold our art form, and invite viewers of all abilities and backgrounds to discover ballet in fresh approaches."

Following partnerships with the artist in Canadian venues and Australia, he understood that sighted people who had encountered Healey’s descriptive audio felt it assisted them understand ballet, which can seem so abstract.

Touching Collaboration Of Expert and Amateur Performers

In one duet, the Royal Ballet dancer Leo Dixon will dance with Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been visually impaired since birth and who had long assumed that dance was "mainly for sighted people". But Kikuchi has understood that it actually "includes a lot of sensation and feelings" and taps into senses, "sight-based and non-visual".

Kikuchi’s unique narrative of previously getting lost on his way home and relying on the sunlight to guide his way back had influenced a dance piece in which the professional dancer embodies the "warm breath of the sunlight around his partner as they dance in unison," the choreographer explained.

"This occurred mid-afternoon and I had a sense that the sunlight should be radiating from the west. So, if I turned toward the sunlight, even though I didn't perceive the light itself, I could perceive the warmth … So I kept walking to the western direction …. It guided me home. The sun was a excellent assistant to me. The sun could be a meaningful metaphor. So the narrative originated from there."

Visual Impairment Provides Special Connection with Movement

The blind artist, an assistant professor of disability research at the Toronto university, said: "Visual impairment and being blind fosters a vibrant connection with movement in a way that is similar to a professional dancer’s bond with their physical self and movement."

In collaborating with the dancers, the artist was striving to communicate what "they feel in their body, something that’s just not accessible through vision," she said. "I speak with the performers to get a understanding of how they are in their body, where their breathing is, what they’re thinking, how their muscles are experiencing.

"Partnering with the dance creators [and] costume, stage lights, stage design and audio designers, the understandings and artistry of visual impairment are ever present as we, blind and seeing persons, develop a connection through our passion of dance and performance. It is this innovation and passion that I attempt to blend into the spoken commentary. It is a cooperation of the senses led by visual impairment."

The artist added: "While the view of the ballet, the beautiful display, is available facing the audience, there is much that they miss or understanding, and it is visual impairment that is inviting sighted and blind viewers both into the hidden. What I desire is that, when audience members leave, they sense performance in a distinct way, and they’re also sensing the presence, and perceiving the viewpoints of, visual impairment in new and vibrant ways."

Composer The Composer on Sound Narration

Richter, whose recordings have gathered more than 3.5bn streams, said the spoken narration formed a relationship between blindness and sight "via a musical landscape, giving voice to that which remains unseen". He added: "It is not just a narration of a show. It is performance."

International Dance Day Partners

The company's international associates for International Ballet Day comprise the National Ballet of Canada and the Australian dance troupe. The companies will additionally provide access to backstage footage, practice sessions and newly commissioned pieces – streamed in real-time via online channels.