Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Sir Peter Wright marks a milestone birthday this year, turning 100 in November, and the Company will be celebrating the occasion in style - as Director Carlos Acosta  recently explained to What’s On...

Ballet superstar Carlos Acosta has danced with internationally renowned companies across the world, and this month he is looking forward to a special performance in Birmingham when he will dance in honour of Sir Peter Wright.

Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos will take the role of Death in the seminal work The Green Table as part of the company’s celebrations to mark the 100th birthday of Sir Peter - the man who brought BRB to the Midlands.

As director of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet from 1977, Sir Peter spearheaded the company’s move to Birmingham Hippodrome and its relaunch as Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1990. He continued at its helm until 1995 and remains closely linked to the company, both as founding director laureate and as the choreographer of some of BRB’s most popular works, including The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Coppélia and Giselle.

Carlos says that the centenary celebration at Birmingham Hippodrome on 18 June is a way for the company to pay tribute to Sir Peter’s great achievements with BRB and beyond.

“He is our founding father and a very important and greatly loved figure in the world of ballet. He has had an extraordinary life and career, and has given the world his choreography.

“In my, and many others’ opinion, his Nutcracker is the greatest Nutcracker in the world, and it is a regular in our repertoire. It has proved to be popular for more than 30 years, and this year we broke ticket sales records with our most successful Nutcracker ever, with sold-out shows and over 44,000 tickets sold.

“Sir Peter was instrumental in our move from Sadler’s Wells Theatre into Birmingham - he planted the seed for everything that followed, and I am very honoured to direct the company that he created.”

The gala event features excerpts from many of Sir Peter’s hit ballets, and he was also keen for the programme to include Kurt Jooss’ 1932 creation, The Green Table. The work has a special resonance for Sir Peter: he trained with Ballet Jooss in the 1940s and made his stage debut as a soldier in The Green Table.

German dancer and choreographer Jooss created the ballet at a time when his country was witnessing the rise of Nazism. Exploring the horror and futility of war, it satirises leaders who have the power to make peace and yet choose conflict by portraying a group of diplomats attempting to negotiate around a green table. Their failure to reach an agreement leads the work into a series of scenes presenting the consequences of war in ordinary lives, where the only victor is Death.

The Sir Peter Wright Centenary will be the first time Carlos has performed the role of Death - which he will do for one special night only.

“I’ve never had the possibility to perform in The Green Table before, and now I’m training for it. My dancing the part is going to be a one-off, just for the Centenary, and a way to pay homage to the founding father of our company. I’m looking forward to it. I think this is something that I will always remember, and it will probably mark one of the highlights of my directorship because not only will I represent the company as director, I will also be contributing as a dancer.

“Sir Peter has wanted us to present this work for a long time and has said that it’s his favourite ballet, as well as it marking the beginning of him performing. And it’s not just him; I have had other people who remember the piece very well saying every so often that it would be wonderful for us to present it. As we were approaching Sir Peter’s centenary, it felt like this was the right occasion for it.”

The Green Table was last performed by BRB in the early 1990s. Its return this month is timely, says Carlos: “Despite its age, it is revolutionary. It has a very strong anti-war message, it’s very theatrical and poignant; a timeless masterpiece. With all the wars that are going on, and the division and the polarisation of the world - the fact that we are waking up to different realities all the time and new wars are breaking out - it works so well now.

“We are in a world where we cannot allow ourselves to think ahead to what is going to happen next year, as we don’t even know what is going to happen next month. And I think that is when art works at its best; when it reflects the world. And that is what this will do.”

The Green Table also forms part of the programme for Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 20th-Century Masterpieces triple bill, which will be performed at the Hippodrome on the 19th & 20th of June.

Jooss’ classic will be danced alongside Frederick Ashton’s Birthday Offering, which is set to music by Alexander Glazunov, and George Balanchine’s Theme And Variations, performed to the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suite No3.

Carlos, who will not be dancing at these performances, says the triple bill aims to showcase the expertise of BRB’s dancers.

“The level of the company has risen a lot, and this programme gives audiences a chance to see the talent we currently have. It will be the first time we have performed Birthday Offering in more than 30 years. And then we have Theme And Variations, which is one of those powerhouse ballets within our repertory and shows how versatile our company is.

“Theme And Variations was choreographed by Balanchine for Alicia Alonso, the lead Cuban ballerina who created the Cuban National Ballet School and National Ballet of Cuba, the school and the company where I came from in Havana. So I think that particular work resonates a lot on a personal level.”

For Carlos, the productions help showcase the company and its aims.

“These programmes are celebrating our founder and our heritage. Our mission is to preserve our dance heritage while at the same time touring and creating new ballets.

“These performances culminate a season which has been very well balanced. We had Black Sabbath - The Ballet at the beginning of the season, which sold out just about everywhere. We had The Nutcracker at Christmas, Don Quixote has been on tour, and then we have these heritage ballets.

“This means audiences can see new works, classics and heritage ballets - these are all part of who we are.”

20th-Century Masterpieces is supported by donors to the Caroline Miller Fund. The Green Table is supported by Stuart Sweeney and Fern & Clive Potter. Birthday Offering is supported by The Frederick Ashton Foundation and The Rick Mather David Scrase Foundation.

BRB present the Sir Peter Wright Centenary on Thursday 18 June, ahead of 20th-Century Masterpieces on Friday 19 & Saturday 20 June. All performances take place at Birmingham Hippodrome

By Diane Parkes