Classic tale is not so grim

Rumplestilskin, from leading dance theatre company balletLORENT, has been released in time for Christmas family viewing and will be available to watch online from December 8th.

This brand new re-telling of the classic Brothers Gimm fairytale explores themes of love, obsession, childhood, grief and reconciliation and is the last of the company’s trilogy of Brothers Grimm fairytales. The work follows the award winning and critically acclaimed productions of Rapunzel and Snow White and was captured for online audiences with support from The Space.

Watch the full film version of Rumpelstiltskin

It’s being shown live on the balletLORENT Facebook page at 6pm on Friday 8th December!

And following this launch you can watch again on demand from the balletLORENT website for a limited time.

The dark tale, retold by Poet Laureate Dame Carol Ann Duffy (Whitbread, T.S Eliot and Pinter Prize winner), and narrated by Ben Crompton, celebrates the underdog, the outcast, in a tale of a man’s desperate longing for love and belonging, brought to live in a rural world of a shepherd, his flock of sheep and his beautiful daughter.

With a cast of 24 dancers in extraordinary costumes designed by the Emmy award winning Michele Clapton, the 80 minute film is packed with beautiful imagery of gold, straw, sheep and sunsets over landscape and a stunning score of music, by the BAFTA nominated cinematic composer Murray Gold.

Trailblazing approach

Rumpelstiltskin is performed by eight of balletLORENT’s core dancers and two apprentices from London Contemporary Dance School who have been central to the choreographic development of the fairytales, with an age range of 22-53 years.  The professional ensemble is also joined by a cast of local children, aged 4-9 years old, found through creative workshops in six Newcastle primary schools, and older people (68+) who have come from a Knit and Natter community group in Benwell, Newcastle.

balletLORENT has consistently adopted this trailblazing approach to age in casting, starting with the production of Rapunzel in 2012. The company’s inclusive approach works with its innovative storytelling, to create ballet theatre that appeals to a wider audience, and the release of the screen version is a further step in the goal of bringing dance to all.

Liv Lorent, Artistic Director and Founder of balletLORENT comments:

‘The children and older people who feature in our production of Rumpelstiltskin add an authenticity to the fairytale world we are creating. The wide age span – from 4-79 – of these guest performers comes closer to the reality of the communities we all inhabit.

‘The children bring their own dynamic physicality, and the older cast are all dexterous knitters. All of the community cast from the East and West Ends of Newcastle upon Tyne have shared their creativity with us with great generosity, and have enhanced our work with their individuality. Our guest cast can tell stories of humanity with a deeper truth, and they offer the impressions of what our bodies once were, and what they may become.’