Birmingham Royal Ballet is hoping to raise its international profile on a tour of Japan. Diane Parkes reports from Tokyo.
While to some people dance may be simply tutu and tights, Birmingham Royal Ballet is aiming to prove it is about so much more.
With the arts under threat due to budget cuts the Hippodrome-based company is forging ahead with an ambitious three-week tour of Japan with a target of not only raising its own international reputation but that of the city as a whole.
And the visit, which began last week and takes in 10 performances in cities including Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, will also aim to bring in much-needed income.
As it tours a country still feeling the aftershocks of a tsunami and earthquake which registered nine on the Richter scale and damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant, BRB is also flying the flag for Birmingham.
Director David Bintley, who is also artistic director of Japan’s New National Theatre Ballet Company, was in rehearsals in Tokyo when the quake hit on March 11. And he stayed in the city for the following week before coming back to the UK.
He said: “There were a lot of question marks over the tour after the disaster and the ongoing situation at Fukushima but we were determined right from the outset to continue the tour as long as it was safe to do so. A lot of companies have cancelled their visits here and they are letting Japan down.
It quickly became clear we were not dealing with a Chernobyl situation and there were no plans to evacuate Tokyo. We were monitoring the situation very closely and quickly saw how the country was settling back down.
“From day one people in Japan were very keen to stress that they needed companies like ours to visit. It is good for Japan that we are seen to be supporting them.”
And BRB is certainly doing that. Despite an already hectic schedule, it added an extra date into the programme for a fund raising gala featuring a Frederick Ashton double bill of The Dream and Daphnis and Chloe - with all profits going to the earthquake and tsunami relief.
“This evening says that BRB has come for more than just a three week tour of Japan,” said Bintley, who has led the company since 1995. “It says we have a belief in Japan, in the country and in its ability to come back from the tragedy. We are saying this is not just a regular show, it is about friendship.”
The tour, which began on Saturday with a performance of former BRB director Peter Wright’s The Sleeping Beauty, set to Tchaikovsky, is the third visit the company has made to Japan, the most recent being 2007.
Through Bintley’s leadership of New National Theatre Ballet Company, links have been building across the two countries. A policy being fostered by Bintley as a possible solution to cuts in arts funding.
