By the award-winning English Youth Ballet
Theatre Royal Nottingham
Friday 20 & Saturday 21 July 2018
· English Youth Ballet – 20th Anniversary Year
English Youth Ballet (EYB) was founded in 1998 to provide professional performance experience for talented young dancers. It previously won The Stage Award – for special achievement in regional theatre. EYB has built a national reputation for the quality of both its full length classical ballets and mixed bill programmes. The opportunity to watch English Youth Ballet (EYB) is a unique experience. Sell-out audiences are treated to beautiful international principal artists sharing the stage with the top up-and-coming young talent from the local area. EYB’s large cast ensures their ballets are performed with the scale and grandeur which was originally intended. The company is made up of 8 professional principals and 100 selected dancers (aged 8 – 18) from the local area. The young dancers are some of the top talents from the local area. There are now ex-EYB young performers in some of the world’s best companies – including the Royal Ballet.
· The story of CINDERELLA IN HOLLYWOOD
Set in the glamorous era of 1950s Hollywood movies, this lavish production draws its inspiration from the film star Grace Kelly who met Prince Rainier of Monaco at a press party and later married him. Cinderella is a seamstress on a film set and the Fairy Godmother is her late mother – a former movie star of the 1930s. Her wicked sisters are Hollywood starlets competing with each other for starring film roles. The Prince meets Cinderella at the press party but at midnight she flees from the scene leaving a sparkly silver pointe-shoe as the only clue to her identity.
· The choreography, design and musical score
The choreography has been created by Director Miss Janet Lewis and her team of international principal artists who coach the young dancers. The music combines Shostakovich Jazz Suites and Ballet Suites with memorable melodies from Hollywood films such as Tea for Two, Chinatown and Dancing in the Dark. The stunning new stage designs for the ballet are by Sebastian Petit and the costume designs are by Keith Bish.
· Highest calibre international principal ballet dancers
The professional principal dancers have joined EYB from some of the world’s most renowned ballet companies – including the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, La Scala and Ballet de Toulouse. British principal dancers include Philip Tunstall, Julianne Rice-Oxley, Steven Wheeler & Oliver Speers. Monica Tapiador is a Spanish principal dancer, Brenden Bratulic is from Australia, Claire Corruble is from France and Samantha Camejo is from Brazil.
· EYB Fact File
• EYB have 8 principal dancers who have danced with major ballet companies all over the world.
• We have 100 young dancers (aged 8 – 18) from the local area in the cast of CINDERELLA IN HOLLYWOOD.
• The cast of CINDERELLA IN HOLLYWOOD will have rehearse for 80 hours at Nottingham Girls Academy for the production
• There will be a team of over 30 chaperones required to look after the young performers at the Theatre Royal
• EYB worked with over 800 young dancers across the UK in 2017
• Over 1500 young dancers auditioned for the opportunity to perform with EYB in 2017
• Over 15,000 people watched EYB in 8 towns/cities in 2017
• In 2017 EYB visited 7 Children’s Hospital wards to give special preview performance workshops for the young patients.
• At the performances in 2017 EYB raised over £16,000 for Children’s Hospitals
• There are approximately 260 costumes required for CINDERELLA IN HOLLYWOOD.
• There are over 50 pairs of pointe shoes, 60 pairs of soft ballet shoes and 30 pairs of character shoes required in the ballet.
• EYB have 6 full-length ballets in their repertory (Giselle/Swan Lake/Coppelia/Sleeping Beauty/Nutcracker/Cinderella in Hollywood)
• EYB have 5 professional technical staff who tour to each theatre and ensure that the sets/costumes/lights/sound are of the highest professional calibre.
• The female principals require at least 2 different pairs of pointe shoes for each performance.
