By Dance & Ballet News, Social Media March 15, 2012

#RBLive: The Royal Ballet Behind the Scenes

Via Press Release

On 23 March, the Royal Opera House will offer an unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes at The Royal Ballet.

A full working day will be streamed live on The Royal Opera House YouTube channel as well as the Guardian website. Live rehearsals and interviews will be interspersed with backstage films to offer an inside look at the ballet world, marking the first time a ballet company has opened its doors in such a way. The aim of the day is to show the work and dedication that go into The Royal Ballet’s performances.

Royal Ballet Live will be presented by George Lamb and Royal Ballet Soloist Kristen McNally. Between them, they will have exclusive access to the Company, and audiences will be encouraged to tweet questions using the hashtag #RBLive.

Streaming will start just before daily class at 10.30am and run right through the day until 7.45pm. The day will feature rehearsals from such works as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Romeo and Juliet, plus the opportunity to see ballets in the process of being created by Liam Scarlett and Wayne McGregor ahead of their world premieres on 5 April. Wayne will round off the evening working with dancers on his new ballet Carbon Life, for which musician and producer Mark Ronson has written the music. In addition, viewers on www.guardian.co.uk will also be able to watch a 2010 performance from his piece Chroma.

Highlights will be available on the Royal Opera House YouTube channel the day after the event, when the entire day will also be restreamed on YouTube.

Submit your own content:

In the run up to #RBLive, audiences are being encouraged to release their inner dancer by submitting videos of their attempts at a grand jeté as demonstrated by Kristen McNally in this clip. A selection of those who leave their film as a video comment on Kristen’s video will have their step broadcast as part of #RBLive.

More about ballet in the YouTube era:

  • A recent podcast by journalist Alice Lagnado in the context of the Bolshoi’s recent live streaming of performances in Russia, featuring a discussion on how digital campaigns help bring new audiences to the art form.

We started The Ballet Bag in April 2009 with the mission to prove that ballet is not stuffy, old fashioned and inaccessible; that it is quite the opposite: relevant, fresh and topical. With the aim to Give Ballet a New Spin we try to show it under a different light. When writing our capsule biographies, ballet fact cards, review roundups and commentary on social media, we cross it over with other art forms and cultural references (pop culture, cinema, rock music – ie. other things we love!).

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