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Birmingham Royal Ballet Black Sabbath – The Ballet

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A female ballet dancer dressed in black against a red background, plays an electric guitar whilst en pointe.

Turn up the volume on Birmingham’s musical legacy as Black Sabbath meets ballet


Sparks will undoubtedly fly in this intriguing new response to Black Sabbath’s music and legacy – the first true heavy metal ballet experience.

Black Sabbath forged their unique sound in Birmingham Royal Ballet’s home city. In Black Sabbath – The Ballet expect a spectacular theatrical performance, featuring thrilling dance and original Black Sabbath recordings (including Paranoid, War Pigs, Iron Man and the eponymous Black Sabbath) alongside full orchestrations of their work (another first) and original new orchestral compositions inspired by the sound of metal – all performed live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. If you weren’t a Sabbath fan to begin with you will be!

Carlos Acosta was drawn to both the band’s work and its musical legacy as the originators of Heavy Metal. This full-evening ballet promises to be a unique undertaking with three composers and three choreographers, led by renowned Choreographer Pontus Lidberg (whose work has been performed by the Swedish Royal Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet) and Composer Chris Austin (whose work includes orchestrating the White Stripes music for Wayne McGregor’s Chroma) working alongside award-winning writer Richard Thomas (Jerry Springer, The Opera) to create an extraordinary metal symphony over three acts. Black Sabbath themselves have been closely involved in developing this unique collaboration.

Header image © Perou

Nearest tube is
Angel

Black Sabbath have always been innovators and never been predictable, and it doesn’t come any more unpredictable than this
Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath co-founder and guitarist

Black Sabbath is probably Birmingham’s biggest export, the most famous, and infamous, cultural entity to ever emerge from the city so I was naturally drawn to the idea of a collaboration between what most people might think are the most unlikely of partners.
Carlos Acosta

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Birmingham Royal Ballet in rehearsal

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