Carlos Acosta’s BRB2 returns to Northampton, featuring first-class emerging ballet dancers from around the globe.
Birmingham Royal Ballet presents Carlos Acosta’s Ballet Celebration: Diaghilev and the Birth of Modern Ballet, an all-new programme for BRB2’s 2025 third UK tour, which comes to Northampton’s Royal & Derngate for two performances on Saturday 17 May.
Described as ‘pinsharp and personality laden’, BRB2 brings together some of the world’s very best young dancers, the international stars of the future, to share their incredible talent.
Carlos Acosta has created a brand-new gala production for this year, featuring highlights from the repertory of Serge Diaghilev’s troupe of rebel dancers, musicians and designers who fled Russia to set a new standard in creativity that inspires and resonates across the world of dance to this day.
The first half of the programme features Les Sylphides and the second half includes Scheherazade pas de deux, a solo and pas de deux from Les Biches, Le Spectre de la rose and Firebird pas de deux.
The programme pays tribute to Mikhail Fokine and the seminal works he created at the beginning of the last century. The choreography, sets and costumes will remain faithful to Fokine’s original vision but will be adapted to fit smaller stages. As with last season’s Classical Selection, the repertoire will showcase and develop emerging talent and present important repertoire. Les Sylphides will be danced to live piano, and the remainder of the programme to a recording made by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia exclusively for this tour.
BRB2 puts the spotlight on some of the best ballet dancers from across the globe aged 18 to 22. The original cohort of BRB2 dancers Maïlène Katoch, Jack Easton, Frieda Kaden, Oscar Kempsey-Fagg and Mason King all completed the two-year programme in BRB’s junior company last season and have now joined the main company as Artists.
The new BRB2 cohort is Charlotte Cohen (Australia / Royal Ballet School), Andrea Riolo (Malta / Royal Ballet School), Noah Cosgriff (Australia / Australian Academy of Classical Ballet), Ellyne Knol
(Netherlands / Royal Conservatoire in The Hague) and Ixan Llorca Ferrer (Cuba / Escuela Nacional de Ballet Fernando Alonso) who have all joined BRB2 this season. Sophie Walters (Australia), who trained at Elmhurst Ballet School, completed her apprenticeship and will also join BRB2. They will dance alongside the second cohort of Ariana Allen (UK / Royal Ballet School), Alisa Garkavenko (Ukraine / Princess Grace Academy), Tom Hazelby (UK / Royal Ballet School) and Alexandra Manuel (USA / Royal Ballet School).
Also dancing with BRB2 is Marlo Kempsey-Fagg (UK, brother of BRB artist Oscar) who joins the company as Apprentice Dancer from Elmhurst Ballet School. Marlo started dancing at the age of 6 when his talent was identified in a local Birmingham Primary School and he joined BRB’s Dance Track programme.
UK Tour
Birmingham Hippodrome
Press Night: Tuesday 6 May, 7.30pm
Performed with live music from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Sadler’s Wells East
Fri 9 & Sat 10 May, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
Lighthouse Poole
Tue 13 May, 7.45pm, Wed 14 May, 2.30pm and 7.45pm
Royal & Derngate Northampton
Sat 17 May, 2.30pm and 7.30pm
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Based at Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Royal Ballet is the United Kingdom’s leading touring ballet company performing a range of traditional, classical and heritage ballets as well as ground-breaking new works with the aim of encouraging choreographers of the future.
The Company’s Director since January 2020 is the internationally renowned Carlos Acosta.
Birmingham Royal Ballet standardly performs at Birmingham Hippodrome for approximately ten weeks of the year and the remainder of the year tours throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. On average, the Company performs over 100 shows a year nationally and internationally.
The Royal Ballet Sinfonia is Birmingham Royal Ballet’s permanent orchestra, it is also Britain’s busiest ballet orchestra. The Sinfonia also plays frequently for The Royal Ballet and other leading ballet companies, including performances with Paris Opéra Ballet, New York City Ballet, Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Kirov, Norwegian Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and La Scala Ballet. www.brb.org.uk
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