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BrumHour saw Swan Lake at the invite of Birmingham Royal Ballet.

For Brum Radio’s Interval Theatre, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Artistic Coordinator, Kit Holder spoke about bringing this huge production back to the Birmingham stage. Listen below:

By Dave Massey

Birmingham Royal Ballet: Swan Lake at Birmingham Hippdrome: Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A Stunning Ballet”

Choreography by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov and Peter Wright

Prince Siegfried (Mathias Dingman at this performance) is gifted a crossbow at a gathering in the royal court, and seeing a flight of swans overhead, he and Benno (Riku Ito) set out to test it. Once outside, he becomes transfixed by Odette (Momoko Hirata).

Set across four acts, which switch from the castle to the lake and back, this is an engrossing dreamy production with classical outfits and a delightful orchestra playing moments that even a novice ballet fan will recognise from popular culture.

The key dancers will change for each performance; our leads, Momoko Hirata and Mathias Dingman, absolutely shone across the stage. Precise, effortless, and filled with skill. There was plenty of gesturing to move the plot forward, and this made it easy to follow.

The first seventy minutes (acts one and two) include a three-minute pause, then there’s an interval followed by a forty-minute act three, another interval and a twenty-minute end piece. This opening night performance started at 7.30pm and ended just about 10.30pm.

The sets look huge and sit firmly on the Hippodrome stage, looking larger than life.

This is a great production to take anyone to, and I look forward to seeing what Birmingham Royal Ballet has next. Having a world-class ballet in Birmingham is such a joy, and knowing it takes part in such things as International Day of Birmingham at Birmingham Council House this week also is just wonderful. (Details here: idob.co.uk)

A stunning ballet, Swan Lake is at Birmingham Hippodrome until 3rd October 2026. Find out more at brb.org.uk.

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