'It's never happened before': Inside the making of the Black Sabbath ballet
The worlds of ballet and heavy metal may seem diametrically opposed.
Picture a heavy metal fan drenched in sweat, revelling and cavorting to a heavy bass riff. Picture matinee goers, sitting leisurely in front of a proscenium arch.
A ballet dancer appears. poised, orchestrated, and graceful, pirouetting through fluid movements.
Heavy metal bands are a tsunami of energy, bound up with adrenaline and reckless abandon.
And yet Birmingham is at the heart of these two worlds colliding, as the Birmingham Royal Ballet brings Black Sabbath - The Ballet to life.
Sabbath co-founder and guitarist Tony Iommi joined the team making the groundbreaking new production at the Hippodrome on Thursday to give supporters of the theatre an insight into the ballet.
Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, Carlos Acosta, told the audience that he fused the two worlds after deciding to make a trilogy of ballets centred around Birmingham and its legacy.
The first, City of a Thousand Trades, was a love letter to Birmingham's history of industry and immigration. The third is yet to be announced, and the second is a tribute to Black Sabbath.
Not that this production is a tribute act. The production weaves dance and music with voice notes from the archives, testimonies from both the band and their fans, to bring their story to life.
The dancers move exquisitely through elegant lifts and twists, before throwing their bodies around to the Black Sabbath music and enthusiastically doing air guitar.
And while the ballet has narrative elements "sprinkled" throughout it, the show is more of a testament to the band and its music as opposed to a formulaic narrative.
Dramaturg for the production, Richard Thomas, said about the show: "We have some great stories in the piece, there are so many to pick from.
"One is of Tony's severed finger, which is a great great story and a very moving one, because it heralds the beginning of the whole thing.
"Tony's told this story many times but it's an absolute corker and genuinely very moving.
"There's also a lot of comedy in Black Sabbath when you read the biographies and check out the archive material, so I'm trying to mirror that in the show.
"There's a hilarious story about the band and Stonehenge, where a huge set of Stonehenge was so big that it couldn't fit into any auditorium, so they just dumped it on the side of some American dock and scarpered.
"And there might be a brief mention of the bat incident, maybe not. But basically it's the story of rags to riches for the most successful band in rock history."
Incorporating the iconic hits from Black Sabbath's repertoire into a ballet production has been a momentous task in itself, due to the lack of Black Sabbath sheet music available.
Chris Austin, who has supervised the music for the project, said: "Unlike The Beatles where you can buy two enormous volumes of all their scores with all the instrumental parts, there's not so much for Black Sabbath."
"And most of it's wrong anyway," interjected the man himself, Tony Iommi, which hailed much laughter from the audience.
Tony added: "Most people I've heard do Sabbath stuff haven't quite got it right. It's a slight bit off. It's not exactly in time. But you captured it perfectly."
Chris Austin's music editor and assistant Joshua Hickin wrote out every song for the production by ear, including the vocals, drums, and guitar. Thankfully, Tony approved.
Addressing the process of choosing the music, Chris said: "When I was asked to take part in this project I thought, where do you start? The Black Sabbath catalogue is enormous, it's so rich and so varied.
"So the process initially was starting to narrow down the amount of material that we wanted to work with that would furnish us with variety, with richness, with different emotional tones, but also help us create this evening-length show."
Chris added: "What I love about Black Sabbath music is the glorious irregularity. All the aspects of music - the flexibility of tempo and feel.
"And the extraordinary early period Ozzy vocals which are stratospheric, it's exceeding Pavarotti in term of the high notes and ringing power."
Taking the stories from the band and setting them to their iconic tracks, Black Sabbath - The Ballet is set to be the perfect celebration for fans.
It could also forge a new way for theatre audiences and makers across the country, with the show promising to bring to life something unprecedented.
Carlos Acosta said: "Expect something very unexpected and risky of ballet" and Richard Thomas added: "Expect something you've never seen before."
Tony Iommi himself said: "It's going to be very different. We are mixing two different audiences - ballet and heavy metal. I know with our fans there is a lot of excitement.
"They're really interested in coming to see the show and finding out what it's going to be like, because it's so different. It's never happened before. I think it'll be really really good."
Combine the visceral gut-punch of a Black Sabbath beat with the elegant movements of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and this promises to be a production not to miss.
