Under the direction of their co-founders and artistic directors, former Royal Ballet dancers Michael Nunn OBE and William Trevitt OBE, BallatBoyz present theTalent2015. The spectacular show features The Murmuring, a new piece by Alexander Whitley, New Wave Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells, and Mesmerics by Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Associate of the Royal Ballet.
Ahead of the tour, Michael and William field a few questions...
Tell us how you met Alexander Whitley and what you like about The Murmuring:
WT: We knew Alex as a dancer initially but noticed that he had begun choreographing and was creating more and more performances. We asked him to come in and spend a day in the studio with our dancers, just to see what might happen and to get an idea of his creative process. Everyone got on very well and his ideas really interested us and so we asked him to make a piece of dance for the company. The Murmuring is a finely crafted work with fascinating details and wonderful opportunities for the dancers to push themselves. It involves the company becoming a single entity and moving as one organism which is perfect for our group of dancers.
How have you and Christopher Wheeldon re-worked Mesmerics for the company?
MN: Mesmerics was originally created for one woman and two men and has been through several reinventions before this one, but this version is the first time it has been danced by an all male cast. Much of the choreography has remained intact, but there are some sequences that didn’t make sense for the men to dance; sequences that only worked when danced by a woman in pointe shoes for example. Chris allowed the dancers to develop their own solutions to these problems and then he developed their ideas to create the version you will see theTALENT performing.
What do you like about touring and BalletBoyz audiences?
WT: Everywhere we go we find that the audiences we play to respond in very different ways, sometimes quiet and attentive, sometimes boisterous and fun, but it is always good to find that we have people in the audience who are seeing dance for the very first time with us. We seem to gather new fans wherever we go, people are still really in awe of what these dancers can achieve and they love the way they perform and the variety of the work in our shows.
What’s a typical audience member for a BalletBoyz show?
MN: There is no typical audience member for us. They are older and younger, women and men (who are not just there because they’ve been dragged there!). They range from dance lovers who might go and see every dance show there is to people trying dance for the first time and of course we love the idea of our show being the introduction to dance for so many people.
After the spring tour, what are the next moves for BalletBoyz?
WT: We are working on a new production for 2016 as well as planning a film version and a tour of our full length work Young Men. Our last repertoire of Serpent and Fallen will be on BBC Four later in the year, direct from the Roundhouse in London and Sky Arts is scheduled to show our Kama Sutra the Ballet in the summer. Busy busy busy!
BalletBoyz: theTalent2015
Tickets £17
Tickets & information 0844 406 8666
