Birmingham Royal Ballet - Summer Celebration

All aboard for the roaring 20s! The Grand Tour sees our heroine, a doughty American spinster, embarking for Europe. She can’t believe her luck when she finds herself on board with a feast of famous faces. However, it turns out that Noël Coward, Gertrude Stein and George Bernard Shaw, to name but a few, aren’t the friendliest of shipmates. Choreographer of many films and hit Broadway shows, American Joe Layton creates a genuinely funny take on the eccentric celebrities of the 1920s. Accompanied by unique orchestral renditions of Noël Coward songs, the critically acclaimed The Grand Tour makes a long-overdue return to the stage.

Faster, Higher, Stronger is a brand-new ballet from the award-winning team behind E=mc². After winning the last-ever South Bank Show Dance award in 2009 with E=mc², Company Director David Bintley embarks on a second collaboration with renowned Australian composer Matthew Hindson. This ballet of speed, power and athleticism will be a fitting creation for the leadup to London 2012.

The course of true love never did run smooth... certainly not in Frederick Ashton’s The Dream where a group mischievous fairies are involved! Having argued with beautiful Titania, Oberon, king of the fairies, seeks a suitable revenge. He orders Puck to transform a dopey local peasant into a donkey and cause Titania to fall in love with it. This he does, but things soon get out of hand – the over-use of a love potion hilariously embroils four poor mortals in the fairies’ games. Mendelssohn’s tuneful and instantly recognisable music becomes the basis for Ashton’s elfin comedy, as he shows his mastery of dance, theatre and humour.