BRECON FESTIVAL BALLET
BRECON FESTIVAL BALLET WELCOMES YOU
I'A registered charity bringing high quality professional live dance and music to Mid Wales,
providing opportunities to the community for participation, education and performance.
THE FULL PRODUCTION OF THE NUTCRACKER MADE A TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE STAGE IN 2022!
Following the disruption and adaptation of the Covid pandemic, we were delighted to be back on stage at Theatr Brycheiniog in December 2022, with full houses enjoying our production once again.
Talented local children and adults took to the stage once again, performing alongside our 24 professional dancers, the orchestra returned to the pit and a backstage team of costume makers, artists and crew came together again to make the magic happen.
BFB was relieved and delighted to play its part in the post-Covid revival of the arts in mid-Wales, with all the physical and mental health benefits that participation can bring. Thank you so much to everyone that supported us during the pandemic and came back to the theatre to see The Nutcracker again, Brecon’s annual festive ballet.
Theatr Brycheiniog has invited us back in December 2023 and our annual Nutcracker has now become part of Brecon’s calendar, the town’s annual family-friendly Christmas ballet!
If you wish to support our charity, please follow the link **HERE**...
(please click the "Gift Aid" box if you can - it makes a huge difference)
or you may be interested in joining the “Friends and Patrons of Brecon Festival Ballet” 2023 scheme
which will be launched this Spring!
Thank you.
2022 Gallery
All photos by Amy Azais
ABOUT
Brecon Festival Ballet is a registered charity, originally established to present a brand-new production of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, “The Nutcracker” at Theatr Brycheiniog for Christmas 2019. Not only was this the first time a full-scale professional version of this iconic ballet had been produced in Wales, but it was also the first time that Theatr Brycheiniog had presented a full-length ballet with a live orchestra!
The Nutcracker is probably the world’s most popular ballet – performed to packed houses all over the globe each Christmas. The ballet is a winning combination of Tchaikovsky’s beautiful music featuring famous and very familiar tunes, and a magical story involving a Christmas party, a journey through the Christmas Wood and a feast of iconic dances in the Kingdom of Sweets, ruled over by the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Our production was created by Artistic Director Katy Sinnadurai, a ballet dancer and choreographer based in Brecon. All principal roles were performed by professional ballet dancers, with children’s and character roles taken by local dance students and actors. The corps de ballet roles were performed by full-time students from King's International Ballet Academy. The Snowflakes chorus was sung by a local choir, and the production was accompanied by the Welsh Chamber Orchestra.
This extremely ambitious project was made possible by grants and a fund-raising campaign which helped cover the costs of this exciting production. All performances played to sell-out audiences, and such was its success that Brecon Festival Ballet is now booked at Theatr Brycheiniog for future years to present Brecon’s very own regular Christmas ballet. In 2020 Katy Sinnadurai was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for services to Dance education, training, and performance.
WE ARE CONTINUALLY ADDING TO THIS WEBSITE AS THE PRODUCTION EVOLVES,
SO PLEASE BOOKMARK IT AND RETURN FOR REGULAR UPDATES.
WHO WE ARE
Brecon Festival Ballet is a registered charity no. 1194326
Copies of the following policies are available on request:
Child and vulnerable adult policy. Equality, diversity and inclusion policy.
Data protection policy. Conflict of interest policy
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WELSH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The Welsh Chamber Orchestra was founded to fill the gap in the music making life of Wales between the performances of small chamber music ensembles and those of the symphony orchestra. Since its inception in 1986 it has performed with many of the world's greatest soloists, and undertaken several European concert tours as well as performing throughout the UK. For many years it was resident chamber orchestra in the Swansea International Concert Series where its innovative policy of giving second performances of works by Welsh composers was highly regarded. It has recorded numerous television programmes including a New York Film Festival prize-winning Opera series. The orchestra's first commercial recordings were of works by William Mathias and Alun Hoddinott. A second disc of works by Alun Hoddinott has since been released, and a further one of Michael Tippett’s works will be issued shortly.
A key part of the orchestra's artistic policy is to perform in North Wales where it was the resident orchestra at Glyndŵr University for several years, giving many concerts for schoolchildren along with a public concert series. North Wales is relatively ill-served in performances of orchestral music compared to other parts of the country and the orchestra is proud to be associated with the William Mathias Centre in Caernarfon and resident orchestra at the Beaumaris Festival on Anglesey.
Apprentices 2022
COMMUNITY
There are lots of ways you can become a part of the Brecon Festival Ballet community...
Information on our 2023 Friends scheme will be available soon.
Although the principal roles are danced by professional dancers, The Nutcracker is also a community production and there are plenty of opportunities for local dancers, dance students, actors and singers to get involved. For more information, please see the Audition section below. There are also plenty of opportunities to get involved behind the scenes with the creation of costumes, scenery and props.
Please contact lesley@breconfestivalballet.com for more details.
AUDITIONS 2023
Children’s audition: SUNDAY 10TH SEPTEMBER
Adult actors’ audition: SUNDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER
Choir audition: SUNDAY 5th NOVEMBER
(FUIRTHER DETAILS COMING SOON)
5 PERFORMANCES
15th – 17th DECEMBER 2023
REHEARSALS EVERY SUNDAY FROM SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER
(Children 10am – 5pm; Adults 3pm - 4.30pm, choir 5pm – 6pm)
Production week: evenings w/c 11th December and dress rehearsal 2.30 Friday 15th
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
In 2019, our inaugural year, thanks to your generous support, we raised the full cost of the production through grants and donations. The income from ticket sales every year now goes part
of the way to paying for our professional dancers and orchestra in the following year, with the remaining costs met by our fundraising events, grant applications and donations. Whatever we raise goes back into the production, helping us to create new scenery and costumes in Brecon, not only reducing our hire costs, but also making it a truly local production and moving towards our eventual aim that our entire production will have been sourced and created in Brecon. Income raised also pays for things like dancers’ transport and accommodation - and pointe shoes, which cost around £70 per pair and last on average only 1 or 2 performances!
Despite the challenges thrown up by Covid and the post-Covid cost of living crisis, we continue working hard to keep Brecon Festival Ballet going; for the benefit of you, our audience, for the local community – especially the children that gain so much from being involved – and for the highly skilled professional dancers and musicians that lost 18 months of work and income due to the pandemic and are now thrilled to return to the stage to entertain you!
Please support us if you can.
Thank you.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Brecknock Art Trust
Brecon Town Council
Foyle Foundation
Theatr Brycheiniog
The Audrey Tyler Trust
The Gibbs Trust
The Gwendoline & Margaret Davies charity