Birmingham Royal Ballet Black Sabbath Review
June 4, 2025 | The Kennedy Center – Washington, D.C., USA
In the world of ballet, where tradition often reigns supreme, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production Black Sabbath – The Ballet emerges as an inventive and daring combination of genres celebrating Birmingham’s iconic heavy metal band Black Sabbath in a dynamic and highly entertaining performance.
This production – which the British ballet company brings to the Kennedy Center Opera House for a seven-performance run in the first week of June – offers the audience an inspiring blend of music and movement that most certainly resonated with both rock music enthusiasts and ballet aficionados.
Black Sabbath – The Ballet was envisioned and directed by Carlos Acosta, a former principal dancer with London’s Royal Ballet who is currently Birmingham Royal Ballet’s artistic director. He collaborated with Black Sabbath’s guitarist Tony Iommi (who served as a musical consultant) to create a show that intertwines the raw energy of heavy metal with the elegance and refinement of classical ballet.
The result is a heartfelt ode to Birmingham’s heavy metal pioneers – a production that honors the band’s legacy while introducing their music to a new audience.
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Birmingham Royal Ballet Black Sabbath Review
The ballet is divided into three acts, each exploring different aspects of Black Sabbath’s tumultuous journey.
Choreographed by a Cuban-born Raúl Reinoso, Act I (titled “Heavy Metal Ballet”) offers an abstract exploration of the band’s history and its rise to fame, setting the tone with an evocative symphonic soundtrack which includes Black Sabbath’s greatest hits such as “War Pigs,” “Iron Man,” and “Paranoid.”
The ballet opened with a bang: the sound of Iommi’s guitar penetrated the air like a call to arms. And yet, what followed was not brute force but rather a stylized ritual.
Dressed in black unitards, the intrepid ensemble of dancers moved onstage like one well-oiled mechanism, aptly capturing the intensity and rebellious passion of the band’s music.
Dancers channeled the pent-up tensions of factory life: limbs snapping and spiraling with the aggression of machinery, then softening into moments of unexpected quietude.
What we saw was a fascinating cornucopia of synchronized ordinary steps adorned with whirlwind turns and striking arabesques.
During the performance, the 16-member strong cast was joined onstage by guitarist Marc Hayward, the dancers moving in surging waves of fascinating patterns, dancing with precision, flair, and excitement.
In one notable scene, two dancers (a man and a woman) were locked in a perpetual embrace, their lips touching throughout – an evocative duet, accompanied by the orchestral arrangement of “Solitude.”
The second part of the ballet “The Band” is danced to the soundtrack that includes voiceovers by the band’s members.
Created by Cassi Abranches, this segment is perhaps the most rhythmically intuitive. The choreographer masterly merges the driving pulse of the music with angular, percussive movement. Alluding to Black Sabbath’s turbulent history, dressed in simple street attire, the dancers breezed through space with a special kinetic urgency, finding in the music and the band’s story a sense of ritualistic exaltation.
In the ballet’s finale, the stage is adorned with a giant silver demon perched atop an overturned car – a nod to the Black Sabbath’s iconic imagery. The choreography of Pontus Lidberg, with its elaborate duets and grand ensemble work, brought a cinematic sweep to the production, paying tribute to the band’s influence and legacy.
The final tableau – the dancers facing outward as if saluting both the stage and the street – was particularly striking, delivering a sense of reflection and understated poignancy.
Black Sabbath – The Ballet is not just a merging of two words: ballet and heavy metal. It is Birmingham’s love letter to itself, delivered in a language only movement and music can write.
Featured Photo of Birmingham Royal Ballet in Pontus Lidberg, Cassi Abranches, and Raúl Reinoso’s Black Sabbath – The Ballet. Photo by Johan Persson, courtesy of The Kennedy Center.
I had the privilege of seeing the performance this past weekend with my son. Neither of us were sure what to expect and how the music and dance would blend. We were blown away with the infusion of the music and dance performance of the BRB.