Birmingham Royal Ballet’s new production Luna is certainly an ambitious project. The final
piece in the Birmingham trilogy which also includes City of a Thousand Trades and Black
Sabbath, Luna aims to highlight the pioneering women of the city – their challenges and their
triumphs.

To achieve this, the company has brought together an all-female creative team including five
international choreographers, each tackling separate scenes and subjects.

Luna is inspired by Louise Palfreyman’s book Once Upon a Time in Birmingham: Women
who Dared to Dream but instead of telling individual stories it focuses on themes and
general experiences.

All are told under the waxing and waning moon which serves as both a symbol of
womanhood and of all of humanity’s connection, and sometimes disconnection, from natural
cycles both on the earth and beyond.

It is a challenge to maintain consistency with so many different people involved and the
many ideas bubbling around, and at times it does feel that Luna is a little unbalanced with
some of its messages swirling in their own galaxies.

Which does then give rise to the question of how much that matters when the dancing is so
enjoyable - because there is no doubt that the performers are totally committed to this work.
The energy and effort used to perform such precise and complex choreography throughout
is hugely impressive and a credit to the entire company.

Luna begins with Wubkje Kuindersma’s Terra which explores the connections between earth
and sky and our human connection to the world and beyond. Terra begins with a children’s
chorus who return throughout Luna as a Greek chorus, reminding us of our responsibilities
to the environment and future generations.

In Terra we see how the dancers are part of the eternal changes of the spheres as their body
movements reflect the motions of the planets and the oceans.

Seeta Patel’s Learning to Dream Big is much more light-hearted as five young girls bed
down for the night but then pull out their books whose illuminated pages light the way to their
future careers. Each plays out their dreams to be a doctor, composer, activist, teacher and
even dreamer in a whimsical work which even features a ‘thank you to the NHS’ banner.

Thais Suarez’s Unwavering offers the female soloist a tour de force and Beatrice Parma
rises to the challenge superbly. The focus, power and detail of Parma’s dancing is awe-
inspiring and yet she also manages to imbue this technical wizardry with a personality which
brings us both vulnerability and strength.

Partnered with Javier Rojas as a supporting father figure, we see her character rise above
the challenges and succeed but at a cost.

Arielle Smith’s Empowment is a totally female piece in which we see how women can
support each other to overcome challenges with some finely tuned synchronization from its
dancers.

Iraxte Ansa’s Overexposed again places Parma at the core but this time she is battling with
a group of faceless and oppressive male dancers who attempt to control her. Supported by
dance partner Riku Ito, she overcomes this apparent oppression and begins her own
journey.

Kuindersma then brings all the themes together in the final piece Luna where the figures
from the previous scenes join with the children and two singers to combine the individual
themes under a huge moon.

One of the strengths of Luna is Kate Whitley’s score which ingeniously ties together the
different works, using her own music and adapting pieces from a range of different sources
including Beethoven, Fauré, Ezio Bosso and the theme from television show Casualty.

Her work wonderfully combines orchestral music, chorus and song. The Royal Ballet
Sinfonia under conductor Paul Murphy seem to revel in the different aspects of the score,
playing with the lighter parts and delving into the meatier moments.

While there is very little physical set, Hayley Egan’s video projection and Emma Jones’
lighting take us through a range of places mixing the imagery of the moon and stars with
some fun pictures drawn by local children.

Imaan Ashraf’s costumes also reflect the fluid nature of the skies while using colour, and
sometimes monochrome, to emphasize connections and divisions.

The children’s chorus deserves a mention as the youngsters, who have been trained by
Birmingham choir Ex Cathedra, are in fine voice and full of enthusiasm. And the soloists,
soprano Marianna Hovhanisyan and baritone Themba Mvula, bring depth to the work while
also forming part of its narrative at times.

Produced by Caroline Davis, in some ways Luna could itself be said to be pioneering as it
brings together so many different voices and disparate ideas into a single evening two-act
ballet which certainly stands out from the crowd. Full of creativity and energy, it is a fitting
tribute to the city’s women whose voices have so often in the past been ignored.

Four stars

Luna was reviewed by Diane Parkes on Thursday 3 October at Birmingham Hippodrome.