Animated short film released by Birmingham Royal Ballet's Freefall Company

Along with creating this year’s newly adapted version of The Nutcracker at The REP, Birmingham Royal Ballet has released Carlos Acosta’s digital commission for 2nd company, Freefall: Nutcracking with Freefall.

Freefall consists of ten talented dancers with severe learning disabilities. The company has been creating and performing daring, ground-breaking and award-winning dance that combines the dancers’ exceptional skills and individual styles for over fifteen years

Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet Carlos Acosta said: “We have another special surprise for everyone with this wonderful animated version of the story from Freefall which is available to watch online free now. It is very important to me that their achievement in making this delightful piece gets the recognition it deserves and I know families in particular will enjoy it.”

This year has been very challenging for the Freefall dancers as they are classed as high risk for Coronavirus. Instead of rehearsing in person, they have had to meet and train online instead.

Freefall’s Artistic director Lee Fisher has created this new film, casting all ten dancers in a very special animated version of the Nutcracker story, drawn by artist Andy Baker, that everyone can enjoy.

The process began by recalling the story, favourite moments and characters; using Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production images, music and choreographic motifs as starting points. These led to improvisations which Free-frames from which were sketched by Andy Baker. The dancers also shared images and video clips of themselves dancing at home via WhatsApp so there was a lot of material to draw from.

Artistic Director of Freefall Dance Company and Birmingham Royal Ballet Head of Creative Learning Lee Fisher said: “Many of the ‘Freefallers’ have grown up with an annual Christmas trip to see BRB's Nutcracker and this autumn we've had loads of fun workshopping the characters, their gestures and movements at our weekly zoom sessions.  It’s been amazing to see Freefall's responses brought to life so skilfully and beautifully.   Nutcracking with Freefall is Freefall's contribution to the 30th anniversary of a production that means so much to us all.”

To watch the film, please click here.