Northern Ballet’s new audio-described videos, supported by our Charity

The Northern Ballet has released two new videos of their shows, “What Used To, No Longer Is” and “Have Your Cake” with audio descriptions for blind and visually impaired audiences. You can view the former in the video above, and the latter can be viewed here.

Olivier Award-winning Ballet Black artist Mthuthuzeli November makes his choreographic debut for Northern Ballet with the original dance film What Used To, No Longer Is. Choreographed and created entirely remotely in a Northern Ballet first, this new work explores the evolution of life, the passing of time and the human response to the beauty of an ever-growing life, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Partly inspired by the nation’s enthusiasm for baking banana bread during lockdown, Kenneth Tindall’s Have Your Cake is a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek short film exploring the playfulness of a group of friends making the best of it. Friendship, love and togetherness shines bright on the darkest days.

Northern Ballet is a dance company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with a strong repertoire in theatrical dance productions where the emphasis is on storytelling as well as classical ballet.  Pre-pandemic, we had supported the provision of touch tours, as well as live audio description.  To continue access while theatres are dark, a recent grant from The Spectacle Makers’ Charity has made online audio descriptions possible for these and other works in the digital catalogue.  We all hope that live performances can resume soon!