Northern Ballet will bring its fairytale-inspired children’s ballet Elves & The Shoemaker to London for the first time next month, playing for one day only at the Royal Opera House.
Based on the classic Brothers Grimm story about a pair of elves who come to the rescue of a poor hard-working shoemaker, the heart-warming children’s production will play three performances at the venue’s Linbury Studio Theatre on 16 May.
Elves & The Shoemaker is the latest in Northern Ballet’s award-winning series of Short Ballets for Small People, which have previously included balletic takes on Ugly Duckling and Three Little Pigs, and are designed to introduce families and young children across the UK to live dance, music and theatre.
Talking about this mission, the show’s choreographer and Artistic Director of Short Ballets for Small People, Daniel de Andrade, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be giving young children and their families the opportunity to experience our latest children’s ballet. The children’s ballets are classic tales beautifully retold through dance and are a perfect introduction to ballet.
“We hope to inspire children and their families through these entertaining and enchanting performances to develop a love for live dance, music and theatre. I’m really pleased that this time we are bringing our ballet for children to the Royal Opera House and we look forward to giving even more audiences the chance to experience this truly magical production.”
Set to an original score by Philip Feeney with set designs by Ali Allen, the show’s forthcoming London premiere at the Linbury Studio Theatre marks the first time that the Leeds-based touring company has had one of its children’s ballet’s performed in Covent Garden.
Families unable to make it into central London on 16 May can also take advantage of two more days of performances taking place at the Richmond Theatre (10 June) and Churchill Theatre Bromley (13 June).
For full details, visit www.northernballet.com