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The Royal Ballet for years made available headphones with descriptive narration so that sightless patrons could follow the action on stage. Now, in a groundbreaking new work, the complete audience will hear such narration within a production that explores how blindness can redefine our perceptions to feeling, sound and narrative.

Blind Artist Works with Famous Choreographers

Devon Healey, a blind professional, is collaborating with renowned choreographer Wayne McGregor, among other dance creators, and musician the celebrated composer in producing a new Royal Ballet production that will premiere on 12 November, World Ballet Day, as declared on Thursday.

In her art, Healey is driven by a desire to illustrate how visual impairment and disability can offer an unique form of understanding for each individual. Her detailed audio narration, integrated with the score, forms the core of the production on stage.

"Producing exceptional dance and musical theater for each person" is a mission statement of the the organization. Under Kevin O’Hare, the Royal Ballet's leader, the troupe is zeroing in on "total access – encouraging creators and audiences to experience dance in transformative innovative methods," he stated.

Several Dance Creators Partner on Fresh Performance

The fresh production is being created by Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, alongside McGregor, each working with Healey.

The curator, the director of this production, said: "International Ballet Day was founded on the idea of accessibility. Following a decade, we're expanding that concept more to examine how disabled viewpoints can shape our creative medium, and invite viewers of every capability and backgrounds to experience dance in fresh approaches."

Having worked with the artist in Canada and Australian locations, the curator understood that those with vision who had experienced Healey’s audio narration believed it helped them grasp ballet, which can seem so abstract.

Touching Collaboration Between Expert and Amateur Performers

In a particular duet, the company's dancer Leo Dixon will perform alongside Takashi Kikuchi, an amateur dancer who has been visually impaired from birth and who had previously believed that dance was "mainly for sighted people". But the dancer has realized that it in fact "includes a lot of feeling and emotions" and engages faculties, "sight-based and non-sight".

Kikuchi’s personal story of previously becoming disoriented on his way home and depending on the sun to direct his way back had motivated a performance in which the professional dancer embodies the "soothing presence of the sunlight around his partner as they dance in unison," the choreographer said.

"It was mid-afternoon and I had a sense that the sunlight should be shining from the western sky. So, if I faced the sunlight, even though I couldn't see the sunlight itself, I could sense the heat … So I kept walking to the west …. It led me home. The sunshine was a great helper to me. The sun could be a meaningful symbol. So the tale originated from there."

Blindness Provides Unique Relationship with Dance

The blind artist, an assistant professor of disability studies at the Toronto university, stated: "Blindness and lacking sight encourages a dynamic bond with movement in a way that is comparable to a professional dancer’s relationship with their physical self and motion."

In partnering with the performers, she was seeking to convey what "they perceive in their body, something that’s just not accessible through vision," she explained. "I converse with the performers to get a feeling of how they are in their physical self, where their breathing is, what they consider, how their physical form are sensing.

"Working together with the dance creators [and] costume, lighting, stage design and audio creators, the understandings and artistry of blindness are always there as we, visually impaired and sighted people, build a rapport through our love of motion and dance. It is this innovation and affection that I strive to weave into the spoken commentary. It is a cooperation of the faculties directed by visual impairment."

She added: "Even though the view of the performance, the gorgeous visual feast, is present facing the patrons, there is much that they’re not accessing or appreciating, and it is visual impairment that is inviting sighted and blind viewers alike into the hidden. What I desire is that, when audience members depart, they sense performance in a different way, and they’re also feeling the being, and perceiving the understandings of, blindness in fresh and dynamic ways."

Composer Max Richter on Sound Descriptions

The composer, whose works have accumulated more than 3.5 billion online plays, stated the descriptive commentary created a rapport between visual impairment and vision "via a soundscape, giving voice to that which does not always appear". He noted: "This isn't simply a description of a show. It is the art."

World Ballet Day Collaborators

The company's international partners for World Ballet Day comprise the National Ballet of Canada and the Australian Ballet. The organizations will furthermore offer availability to behind-the-scenes footage, preparations and recently created pieces – transmitted in real-time via online channels.