Luna: a new ballet inspired by the women of Birmingham

On October 3, Birmingham Royal Ballet premieres Luna, a six-movement, two-act ballet devised by an all-female creative team, inspired by the city’s pioneering and socially-enterprising women, many of whom appear in Louise Palfreyman’s book, ‘Once Upon a Time in Birmingham: Women Who Dared to Dream.’

David Mead spoke recently to two of the ballet’s choreographers: Wubkje Kuindersma and Seeta Patel.

Of Palfreyman’s book, Kuindersma says, “It’s just beautiful to have this collection of strong female stories, and confirmation that there are many very inspiring women in the city.”

Luna, the final part of artistic director Carlos Acosta’s Birmingham trilogy is obviously Birmingham-focused, it being created in the city, inspired by a book about the women of the city, featuring dancers and a children’s choir from the city, but Kuindersma insists, “It is not singular. Birmingham is part of the world. I think it could be anywhere. The same issues come up wherever you are. The story of women, and of people, is universal.”

Following that line, she and fellow choreographers, Seeta Patel, Thais Suárez, Arielle Smith and Iratxe Ansa, have largely not so much focused on specific individuals but on wider themes of female empowerment, overcoming adversity and women educating themselves with the aim of realising a better life for themselves and their children.

The ballet’s title emphasises how the Moon is a powerful representation in many cultures for hopes and wishes, and for the collective imagination. Kuindersma observes, “It’s like a symbol for another reality, our thoughts, maybe spiritual worlds or our dreams. Everywhere in the world, people look up at the moon, all under the same sky. This gives me the sense that we’re part of something bigger and that everything is connected.”

Kuindersma has focused on the sense of the community, coming to the choreography from perspective of the Earth and the Moon. She describes her two sections, which open and close Luna, as being multi-layered.

“I’m not telling a concrete story. It’s poetry.” But that most definitely does not mean abstract, she insists. “The dance is human. And it’s very connected to the music. For me, it’s expressing human emotion in movement with the music. It’s about human existence without using words. I think each person can experience it in their own way but I hope they feel moved. That would be beautiful.”

And she adds, “Just sharing that moment together, in the space, I think that is very powerful and something just beautiful. We do need the audience. Dance is a sharing art form.”

In her opening ‘Terra,’ Kuindersma grounds the dancers. “My inspiration was the force of the Moon on the Earth. The section is very connected to the natural world and the cycle of life.” The scene connects women with children in the shape of thirty young people who have worked with the company’s Learning, Engagement, Access & Participation team, and Birmingham’s Ex Cathedra choir, and who will sing as a sort of Greek chorus. “The children sing, ‘I am the sea, I am the sky.’ In other words, we are part of nature. So that’s my first scene, the physical world.”

Working with the youngsters has been a joy, says Kuindersma. “I really love it. They are so honest and they’re so excited. And when they sing, it really gets to you.”

In her section, ‘Learning to Dream Big,’ which follows, Seeta Patel was tasked with focusing on education. She says, “The book spoke to me about that because books are an education in themselves.” Rather than taking individual stories, she says, “I wanted to reflect that education that can educate you to be an artist, a scientist or an activist.” She adds, however, that, “I think the whole idea of women breaking glass ceilings was the most exciting thing.”

Patel’s background is in bharatanatyam. “That was my training. I have done it for a very long time and I know how to work with it in interesting and creative ways.” For Luna, she has used the classical ballet vocabulary, however. Including pointework, just one of may learning experiences for her during the project. “I did need a bit of support, although a time with a ballet colleague of mine helped a lot,” she says.

Reflecting on her choice of movement vocabulary, she says, “I don’t think I would have done myself or the dancers justice had I tried to make them do faux bits of bharatnatyam. In fact, that kind of thing really grates on me as an artist. I find it tokenistic in and of itself. And I don’t want to make dancers feel they’re not very good at something when, they’re actually the most beautiful dancers in their own world.”

Patel describes ‘Learning to Dream Big’ as being “a whole arc of a story in and of itself” and very understandable. Although her section doesn’t feature children, her five dancers reference them in that, “They are being young, childlike women, who are dreaming about what their lives could be. It’s almost a children’s sort of vision. Absolutely anyone will be able to follow it. I like the thought of that. I don’t always make work like this but I felt it suited Luna.”

She continues, “I know I’m being bold by going down that road. I think there is a sort of contention around narrative versus abstract and almost a sort of hierarchy or value judgment on those things, which I don’t buy into. Coming from a dance form that absolutely has storytelling at its heart, I don’t appreciate it when abstraction is considered higher art than narrative.”

Like Kuindersma, Patel confesses to loving working with the dancers. “They are brilliant, extraordinary. Such artistry. They communicate the ideas that I put in front of them really beautifully.”

Patel says she’s had a great time working with composer Kate Whitley too, and that their discussions and indeed the whole process of has been “really interesting,” a view echoed by Whitley. Patel adds that she just wishes some of it had been captured, especially their discussions about beats, phrasing and rhythm, and how she brought her way of thinking into the conversations.

Whitley has neatly woven a few familiar sounds into her new music for Patel’s ‘Learning to Think Big.’ When one of the dancers/children dreams of being a conductor, listen out for a snatch of Beethoven’s Fifth, and later for a few notes from the Casualty theme when one aspires to be a doctor. The music is especially beautiful at the end, says Patel. “With the vocalist in there, it’s just so uplifting. I think it really speaks.”

Both Kuindersma’s sections, and that for Arielle Smith’s, are to orchestral arrangements of existing Whitley compositions.

Kuindersma describes that of ‘Terra’ as “quite emotional,” especially when the singing is heard. The music for the closing ‘Luna,’ features lyrics by poet Sabrina Mahfouz, sung by soprano Marianna Hovanisyan and baritone Themba Mvula, and the children’s choir. “It’s all very inspiring and works really well for dance. I can’t wait to hear it played live. I think it’s going to be mind blowing,” says the choreographer.

The third section, ‘Unwavering,’ by Cuban choreographer Thais Suárez, features a pas de deux set to a new Whitley arrangement of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. With the help of the image of a phoenix, dancers overcome adversity and take flight, leaving memories and the past behind.

After the interval, and another song for the children called ‘There is Silence,’ Smith’s all-female ‘Empowerment’ shows women relying on other women for support.

Darkest of the sections promises to be the penultimate. In the contemporary ‘Overexposed,’ Spanish choreographer Iratxe Ansa takes inspiration from Birmingham artist Barbara Walker’s large-scale drawings, presenting a lone woman in a patriarchal society struggling against eight dancers in masks. “It’s about how women can be overlooked to the point where they feel invisible,” explains Kuindersma.

In her finale, ‘Luna,’ Kuindersma focuses on the mirror world of the Moon. Using pointework as a way of playing with gravity, it sees everyone return under the sky, reunited as they look to a better future.

While Luna is six separate choreographies, in many ways perhaps more series than serial, all the choreographers have been working with video designer Hayley Egan. “The visuals will definitely help it to connect and hopefully come together as a sort of journey,” says Kuindersma.

Both she and Patel confess to be really excited about the piece coming to the stage. “It’s very special to have five female choreographers in one evening,” Kuindersma believes. “That’s just beautiful. I am so very grateful to be part of Luna, to have the chance to be working here. All the designers, light, costume and video, are also all women. So it’s really very special. With the live music, children’s choir, opera singers and set too, “I think it’s going to be very rich to watch.”

Birmingham Royal Ballet perform Luna at the Birmingham Hippodrome from October 3-5, 2024, then at Sadler’s Wells, London on October 22 & 23.