Birmingham Royal Ballet Sir Peter Wright Centenary Review
June 18, 2026 | Birmingham Hippodrome – Birmingham, England
How do you honour the life of someone who’s not only lived one hundred years but who also has had a profound impact on the ballet world? Perhaps the best way is to tell their story through the works they created, as well as the ones that influenced them.
On Thursday June 18th, Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) celebrated the fruitful career of Sir Peter Wright CBE, the Founding Director Laureate of the company, with a special one-night gala performance.
The night featured excerpts from iconic classical ballets that Wright created for BRB, as well as a special performance of The Green Table, a one-act ballet that had a crucial influence on Wright’s career.
It was an evening of technical brilliance that showcased the best of Birmingham Royal Ballet, which is, of course, Wright’s most important creation.
As a young boy, Wright was discouraged by his family from pursuing ballet, which his father did not consider to be a “sensible” career. However, he persisted in his dream: when The Royal Ballet originally rejected him, he joined Ballet Jooss, founded by German choreographer Kurt Jooss, where he developed his technique and honed his creativity through contemporary work.
Eventually, he returned to England and was hired into Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. He became a prominent figure in the London ballet scene through his work as a choreographer and instructor.
Fast forward to 1990, when Wright, now Director of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, made his boldest move yet: He decided to re-locate the company permanently to Birmingham.
It must have been a shock to many. Even today, London often lays claim as the cultural epicenter in the country. Birmingham, the “second city” of the UK, would have sat in London’s shadow, and it was an unlikely place to dream of nurturing a professional ballet company.
But Wright saw Birmingham’s potential to become a passionate market for the art form, and the possible challenges did not intimidate him. Wright had faced adversity before, and he was prepared to do it again.
As Carlos Acosta, Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, described it when he welcomed the audience to the show, Wright is “a rebel who fought for his art.”
Wright’s life is one of resilience and hard work, something that the Birmingham Royal Ballet continues to embrace over 35 years on. It is no surprise the company leapt at the opportunity to honour his career and legacy.
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Birmingham Royal Ballet Sir Peter Wright Centenary Review
The evening began with a performance by the students of Elmhurst Ballet School, the affiliate academy for BRB, and an institution that Wright has championed for years.
Staged to the polonaise from Eugene Onegin, the grand défilé featured a steady stream of young, aspiring dancers. They filtered on and off the stage so quickly, a parent could miss their child if they looked away at the wrong moment.
The piece set the tone for the evening with excitement and fanfare, and Wright’s ongoing impact could be seen distinctly through this next generation of ballet dancers.
Act I consisted of excerpts from Wright’s productions, all of which are icons in the classical ballet repertoire: The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Giselle, and Swan Lake. Interestingly, one ballet not present on the programme was The Nutcracker, one of Wright’s most successful productions for BRB that has become a local tradition during the holiday season.
It was a star-studded display, with the company’s top dancers featured in each excerpt. My favourite selection was Swan Lake, which included multiple dances from the ballet, including the czárdás, the Neapolitan Dance, the Spanish Dance, and the Odile pas de deux.
All the divertissements were vibrant and full of energy, but the performances by Yasiel Hodelín Bello and Céline Gittens in the pas de deux were particularly captivating. Like the grand défilé at the beginning, Swan Lake closed the act with dramatic flair.
During the Giselle pas de deux, I reflected on a story Acosta shared in his speech earlier that night. He recalled working with Wright in the studio years ago on the same ballet. Feeling confident about his performance, Acosta was quickly dismissed by Wright with dry, cutting words:
“You are in a graveyard, not a nightclub.”
It’s a funny anecdote, but it also reflects Wright’s attention to detail and his deep understanding of how movement is key to capturing different emotions.
By the time the Giselle excerpt concluded, the audience had already experienced three very different ballets, all technically and emotionally distinct. Unlike The Sleeping Beauty excerpt, which was brimming with regal grandeur, or like the Coppélia excerpt, which oozed romance, Giselle was ethereal and tragic.
At the same time, all these excerpts demanded the same high level of technical ability. Rarely did the dancers falter out of a turn, lose balance, or muddle footwork.
The consistent quality across the excerpts was a powerful visual legacy of Wright’s ethos when creating Birmingham Royal Ballet over 30 years ago.
This attention to detail has to be nurtured by the right people to fully settle into a company, and it is this dedication to excellence that Wright embedded into Birmingham Royal Ballet from the start.
Similarly, The Green Table, the second portion of the gala, relied on technical accuracy and nuanced emotional connection. Although the ballet is not one of Wright’s works, he performed in the ballet as a young member of Ballet Jooss.
Jooss created the ballet in the 1930s as a commentary on the political tensions of the era, when a second world war was already a dangerous threat. The work stuck with Wright for decades after, and he commissioned Birmingham Royal Ballet to perform The Green Table in 1992, soon after its move to the city.
Its inclusion in the gala reflected not only Wright’s deep appreciation for Jooss and his work, but also its impact on Wright’s career and, in turn, on Birmingham Royal Ballet.
With a distinctly different look and feel compared to the classical excerpts that started the evening, The Green Table, also titled “A Dance of Death in Eight Scenes,” is a somber, cynical look at war: who dictates it and who is impacted by it.
While The Gentlemen in Black, politicians who wear grotesque masks and gesture wildly, determine the fate of the world, other characters must navigate the realities of war. Death looms in every scene. Acosta himself danced this role, a robotic and eerie presence throughout the ballet.
Although the contemporary movement of The Green Table contrasted drastically from the classical lines and shapes of the first act, Kooss’ choreography demands precision, and dancers must be mindful of the staging and the music’s rhythm to create the desired visuals.
The look and feel reminded me of a silent film from the early 20th century, which I think was due in large part to the musical scoring. The dual piano score matched each character so well, from the light-hearted tango that made The Gentlemen in Black appear like a farce, to the heavy, minor chords that matched Death’s relentless marching.
The music was an extension of the storytelling, guiding the audience just as much as the dancers on stage.
Throughout the evening I found myself reflecting on ballet’s historic traditions and how it has traveled and developed over the past centuries. Like Peter Wright, it is a resilient art form, not dying at all, and this celebratory evening proved it is alive and well.
It was a treat to watch ballet in so many different forms, all brought together by Wright’s visionary leadership. He imagined a home for ballet in a place that seemed foreign to others, and by pursuing this dream, he built a new legacy for ballet that will continue for years to come.
Featured Photo of Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s Beatrice Parma and Franz Tzu-Chao Chou as Swanilda and Franz in Sir Peter Wright’s Coppélia. Photo by Johan Persson.
