The past weekend has seen rapturous applause for stand-out performances of one of David Bintley’s signature works. Hobson’s Choice closed the 2018-19 season at London’s Sadler’s Wells and the Company’s final performances with David as Director.
Before the final performance on Saturday 29 June, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Vice-President, Lady Sarah Chatto, awarded David a special medal marking his remarkable contribution as Director of the Company for 24 years. Following the performance, Sir Peter Wright took to the stage to pay homage to David’s immense contribution to British ballet. He noted that David has been faithful to the vision of our founder Dame Ninette de Valois: ‘Respect the past, herald the future, but concentrate on the present.’
The Company then gathered at the nearby Shakespeare’s Head – one of London’s legendary ‘theatre’ pubs, which will honour David by adding his framed photograph to its gallery.
During this, David made a public announcement of the following promotions:
Brandon Lawrence from First Soloist to Principal
Kit Holder, Rory Mackay and Valentin Olovyannikov from Soloists to First Soloists
Laura Day and Beatrice Parma from First Artists to Soloists
Huge congratulations to them all for this well-deserved recognition.
As previously announced, we also said goodbye to First Artist, Ruth Brill, who is now much in demand as a choreographer. She is working on projects with London Children’s Ballet and New English Ballet Theatre, as well as acting as Interim Artistic Director/Choreographer for National Youth Ballet.
Compliments to all for yet another exceptional year of outstanding performances by the dancers, world-class music by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and top-quality production by our brilliant backstage team.