Event: Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) First Steps: An Introduction to Ballet
Location: Birmingham Hippodrome, Hurst Street, Southside, Birmingham, B5 4TB
Date: 29th June 2018
Time: 1pm
Length: 60 minutes
Price: £12.50 each
Just over a week ago, if you follow my Instagram stories, you will know that I took Jemima to her first ever ballet show. Birmingham Royal Ballet were doing their First Steps: An Introduction to Ballet session at Birmingham Hippodrome (Devised by the very talented Marion Tait) and we were kindly invited along to see what it was all about.
To give you a little idea of how successful it was, in the week following our trip to watch the show, Jemima is now going to ballet classes.
On the Friday of the show, we arrived twenty minutes early and were welcomed into the theatre by friendly and polite staff. We went down a floor to where the stalls are (with Jemima posing with her First Steps programme before we got to the bottom of the stairs).
And we went and purchased some crisps and a drink. The theatre provided cute paper bowls for the children to put the crisps in, which I thought was a nice touch (and also stops the russling of crisp bags during the show – genius idea).
We sat down in the foyer for ten minutes and Jemima enjoyed having her snack.
We then decided to head into the theatre, where one of the most helpful and friendly ushers I’ve ever encountered, showed me and Jemima to our seats and came back over with a booster seat for Jemima.
Jemima enjoyed watching other children peep over the side at the orchestra (conducted by Jonathan Lo) and she sat in anticipation ready for the show to start.
Before long, the Storyteller (Narrator – Owen Young) came onto the stage and introduced himself and the show.
For those who have not heard of the First Step shows (like me prior to this show), they are a group of shows specifically for children aged 3 and above (and adults too) performed by Birmingham Royal Ballet. The idea is to introduce children to Ballet using BRBs amazing dancers and huge orchestra, interspersed with scenes in which a storyteller introduces the children to the music and dancers whilst sharing some technical magic.
It truly is a perfect introduction to ballet and has inspired Jemima to want to be a ballerina.
We got to find out about some of the ballet steps and moves, the professional names for them, we were introduced to the stylised mime of ballet and the audience participated in different sections to make it easier to understand and learn. The children were asked to shout hello and then asked to mime hello. The narrator had explained the concept very well, as all children waved hello instead of shouting it for a second time.
We got to see various scenes from different ballets. Jemima shouted “wow, mummy she’s beautiful” when the scene from the nutcracker was performed. And Jemima stood on her chair and tried to twirl like the ballet dancers Karla Doorbar and Max Maslen on the stage.
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s leading dancers Max and Carla were fantastic. The elegance and skill on stage, along with the ability to engage the audience of varying age groups.
Other dancers, including the Cockerel Gus Payne and the Chickens, Beatrice Parma, Rachele Pizzillo, Lynsey Sutherland and Jade Wallace were all brilliant. Jonathan Higgins did a fantastic job on the piano. Another credit to BRB.
Jemima fell in love with the costumes, the music, the stage and the theatre. And I felt a touch of pride when she ran to the front at the end to wave hello to the orchestra, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, led by Robert Gibbs.
It wasn’t just Jemima who enjoyed this hour and was captivated, but I was too.
It is definitely the start of Jemimas love of ballet. And we cannot wait to attend the next First Steps session which is being held at Birmingham Hippodrome on 28th September and is A Child’s La Fille Mal Gardée with excerpts from the production. Be sure to get your tickets before they sell out.
Thank you Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Disclaimer: We were invited along to review the show with complimentary tickets. All views are our own. Jemima is now an avid ballet fan and we are already looking forward to our next show together.