Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) has today announced the launch of The Virtual Stage - a tech focused project featuring content developed in collaboration with Canon and RiVR.

Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the project explores the many different ways that AR, VR, 3D mapping and Motion Capture can be applied to BRB’s productions in order to enhance experiences and interaction, increase accessibility, promote its productions worldwide and bring ballet to life in new ways.

Significant funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator Programme has enabled BRB to invest in equipment and staff training to allow its team to dive into the world of immersive technologies.

By working with and learning from industry leaders, Birmingham Royal Ballet aims to become pioneers in the application of immersive technology for the international dance sector. The Virtual Stage has already been having a marked impact on BRB’s content creation and digital output, but BRB’s new online platform The Virtual Stage takes things to a whole new level. 

The areas of technology being explored in this partnership include 3D Mapping, Augmented and Virtual Reality and Motion Capture.

A significant upgrade of the in house equipment, as well as specialist training of the BRB team, was needed to meet the requirements of 180 VR capture and the creation of ancillary content such as new dance films and documentaries that can be accessed by a broad range of audiences.

3D mapping and scanning of Nutcracker and Swan Lake with RiVR during the 22/23 season has created virtual and augmented reality content to be used for a variety of applications. Including virtual reality experiences and augmented reality content.

One of the ambitions is that The Virtual Stage programme will be key to BRB building relationships with other industry leading practitioners and continue to develop the high standards and production values of its digital storytelling and experiences.

Working closely with Clive Booth and Canon, a Swan Lake VR experience will tour to schools across the West Midlands, with other commercial opportunities currently being explored.

Freefall, BRB’s company of dancers with learning disabilities, will also have its own VR experience and a VR Documentary, created by RiVR, of BRB’s famous production of The Nutcracker will both be made available to specialist schools and through Birmingham Open Media’s (BOM) network of neuro-divergent programs. Also housed on The Virtual Stage. Freefall VR will also be ‘shown’ at a gala event to mark 21 years of Freefall Dance Company.

The Virtual Stage will leap from screen to real world with NutcrackAR - an AR campaign taking the 12 days of Christmas to locations around the city. The trail will go live in November at a Nutcracker event at the Bullring. Each day of the countdown to opening night will highlight a different AR sight with each partner venue through a dedicated social media campaign. After opening night on the 17th November, we will host all objects in and around Hippodrome square for the duration of our run and the festive season. Content will be accessed through posters presented in various formats housing unique QR codes with AR content, descriptive text and voiceover plus links to ticketing information.

All of the content will go live on The Virtual Stage webpage today 30 August at the launch event. brb.org.uk/virtual-stage