Birmingham Royal Ballet's Cinderella packed up and ready to roll
Ten articulated lorries packed with scenery flats, props, lighting rigs, rails of costumes, flight cases of wigs are set to roll out of Birmingham this month as Birmingham Royal Ballet begins its UK tour of Cinderella.
The three-act ballet closely follows the traditional Cinderella story of the wicked stepmother, ugly sisters, the Fairy Godmother and of course, the slipper.
In a break from the character portrayal in Cinderella that has dominated in recent years, David Bintley returned to the original idea of having ballerinas as the two sisters who are 'ugly on the inside', rather than being played by two men.
See a trailer of the show here:
Broadcast by the BBC as the 2010 Christmas Ballet, the company's version of Cinderella won the Best Classical Choreography at the prestigious 2011 Critic's Circle National Dance Awards for the choreographic work. John Macfarlane's designs, originated in close collaboration with Mr Bintley includes a a giant ticking clock and a beautiful carriage.
Birmingham Royal Ballet spokesman David Harmon said: "With beautiful choreography and clear narrative the ballet offers ample opportunities for acting and comedy, particularly for the two sisters, Skinny and Dumpy. It also has great family appeal."
The production will be staged in Southampton from January 25 before heading for Salford, Plymouth and Sunderland in addition to a two week run at Birmingham Hippodrome, the home venue of the company.
At each venue the production must adapt its sets to work perfectly on a new and different sized stages and dancers must perform in up to a third less space than when at home, taxing the ingenuity and skill of over 50 backstage staff and nearly 40 dancers nightly.
Each venue requires between two and three days for each build or 'get in' and following the final night of the production the technical crew work straight on through the night to break down and load up before leaving for the next venue on the tour.
The contents of the 10 articulated lorry trailers include 31 rails of costumes, eight baskets of shoes, 78 wigs 250 hair rollers, 1,000 hair pins, 44 tutus and two washing machines and dryers.
Helping to bring the show to life are 25 core technical staff, 20 venue staff, 64 orchestra musicians and 39 dancers.
