Magic carpet ride with Birmingham Royal Ballet in Aladdin
Dancers are practising their perfect pirouettes ahead of a magical production of Aladdin.
Birmingham Royal Ballet is inviting audience to step onto a magic carpet and soar into the fantastical world from Tuesday until Saturday.
The classic story of Aladdin and his adventures with a magic lamp will be brought to life with the help of lavish sets and costumes, stunning special effects and beautiful choreography.
Australian and soloist Lachlan Monaghan and first artist Yaoqian Shang, from China, are starring as the lead roles of Aladdin and the Princess Badr al-Budur in Aladdin.
After dancing with the ballet company for six and five years respectively, they are starting to break into principal roles and discover what it means to be at the top of their profession.
Audiences will be familiar with the story of Aladdin but according to Lachlan, they can expect some differences from the famous Disney film.
"It is quite different. In the ballet our Director David Bintley goes back to the original story from the Arabian Nights rather than the Disney version. We don't have a monkey or a talking parrot but we do have flying carpets and genies," he added.
Lachlan said rehearsals for the show, which is being staged at Birmingham Hippodrome, were going well.
" The first things you attempt to conquer in rehearsal are the pas de deux. As an audience member you might think the pas de deux or the solos are the hardest part, and they do have the most difficult steps, but actually its all the transitions, interactions with the other characters and the props that are the difficult things to get a handle on.
"They take time to learn, and its not really until we get to full cast rehearsals that we see it come together," he said.
Alongside Aladdin and the Princess, there are other roles they need to learn.
"I'm also performing as one of the Princess attendants, sapphires and rubies -the jewels that Aladdin finds in the cave. It's not too bad because all my other roles are quite short so its not like I'm on the go all of the time," said Yaoqian, who started dancing properly at Beijing Dance Academy when she she was nine and went to the Royal Ballet School when she was 16.
Lachlan added: "I'm finding it difficult with the Djinn, Aladdin and also one of his two friends. There are a lot of scenes where all of those characters are on stage at the same time.
"For example, there are times where Aladdin and the Djinn are in the same scene, both fighting the Mahgrib, and the moves are one count after each other. It's certainly testing my brain but its really fun."
Both dancers say it's important to remember to have fun when rehearsing.
Lachlan said: "There are some quite challenging lifts in Aladdin where, holding her weight, I'll have to go down on my knee and drop to the floor. "There have been some quite heavy crash landings to laugh about. I think its really important to have a good sense of humour and to have fun.
"Yaoqian is brilliant; she's just such a natural dancer. There have been so many rehearsals where we hadn't even tried bits before, and decided to just do a section with the music. We would do it and it would work, so wed just keep going.
"We enjoy dancing together so much that each section just falls into place. That's what audiences seem to remember – the rapport of a partnership, and the way you look at each other."
Yaoqian added: "Lachlan is so clever. I always say that; he just knows exactly where you are. We have never really danced together before Aladdin but we have worked really well from the start.
"With partnering you need to find your co-ordination together, and things feel different from one partner to another, but for us there's been nothing difficult that we've had to fix."
There are seven performances of Aladdin from October 3-7. Tickets start at £11. To book and further information see brb.org.uk
