Balletboyz presents ‘the TALENT’
Coproduced by The Point, Eastleigh
Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, founders of Balletboyz, have been hailed as pioneers for making dance accessible and reaching a wider audience through their celebrated stage and television work.
They met at the Royal Ballet School in the late 1980’s and went on to dance for 12 years as
leading dancers with the Royal Ballet, forming a lasting friendship that has taken them through a series of highly successful creative ventures. They came to public prominence in 1999 with their popular Channel 4 documentaries Ballet Boyz and Ballet Boyz II which charted their departure from The Royal Ballet and their subsequent solo seasons in Japan.
In 2000 they cofounded their own dance company George Piper Dances, now known as
Balletboyz and went on to win numerous awards and nominations including the 2002 Theatrical Management Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for their show Critics Choice ***** and the 2004 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production for their commission Broken Fall.
Balletboyz has established itself as one of the most cheekily original and innovative forces in modern dance: revolutionising traditional programming formats; commissioning new work;
collaborating with a wide range of cuttingedge talents and building a big following through their regular television appearances. Their chief aim is to challenge, surprise and enlighten audiences by bringing together elements from all realms of the art world. They continue to develop groundbreaking education initiatives, particularly working with boys in dance.
They became Associate Artists at Sadler’s Wells in 2005. Since then Balletboyz has appeared in 4 seasons at Sadler’s Wells, most recently with their 2008 show Greatest Hits! as well as touring the UK and internationally.
Nunn and Trevitt’s film company formed in 2005 has since gone on to win commissions from all the major broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky as well as working on ground breaking multidisciplinary digital content for The Royal Ballet, The Royal Albert Hall, Southbank Centre and numerous independent artists whose work is shown in galleries around the world. Their documentary Strictly Bolshoi won the 2008 International Emmy and the prestigious Rose D’Or for Best Arts Documentary.
2009 saw two simultaneous TV commissions for the company. The first was the observational documentary for More4 called The Royal Ballet in Cuba capturing the goings on of one of the world’s most revered companies, as they made an historic visit to Cuba this summer. This heads More4’s Christmas dance season and will be broadcast on Christmas Day on More4 in a double bill with Strictly Bolshoi.
The second programme Ballet Boyz: The Rite of Spring follows the creative process of staging a cutting edge reworking of Stravinsky’s iconic Rite of Spring. The film follows Nunn & Trevitt as they assemble a diverse team of performers and collaborators to bring this defining musical masterpiece bang up to date. Four of the Balletboyz dancers – Jesus, Joss, Kai and Leon perform in the film and the Talent choreographers Paul Roberts and Freddie OpokuAddaie also feature.
This film will air on BBCThree on Boxing Day.