Recruitment Pack DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT ‘I am immensely proud to be President of Birmingham Royal Ballet. The Company exemplifies modern, ambitious and world-class ballet, and inspires, develops and showcases the very best of our country’s talent and creativity.’ HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES PRESIDENT, BIRMINGHAM ROYAL BALLET ‘The future of ballet was right there in Embrace.’ AUDIENCE MEMBER TWITTER ‘A standard-setting Company, that other ballet Companies, and Youth Ballets learn from. I have enjoyed seeing such a variety of their works.’ AUDIENCE MEMBER FACEBOOK Birmingham Royal Ballet: recruitment information for Director of Development, May 2019 page 1 of 7 BACKGROUND Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) aspires to be the world’s leading touring classical ballet company. Our home is in Britain’s second largest city, but our life is on the road, performing over 140 shows every year at as many as 15 venues. We have up to 60 permanent dancers and our own outstanding orchestra, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, led by Koen Kessels, which is renowned for its performances of some of the best orchestral music in the UK. Our annual turnover is c£14 million and we regularly an audience in excess of 185,000. In January 2020 Carlos Acosta CBE, one of the world’s most recognised dancers, will join Birmingham Royal Ballet as the company’s new Director. Carlos has an exciting vision for the company and we are recruiting for a Director of Development to lead our talented fund-raising team and to work with Carlos, Chief Executive Caroline Miller OBE and the Board, to raise the funding required to realise our ambition. This is a rare opportunity for a talented and dynamic individual to join one of the world’s leading ballet companies at a point of exciting change, and to be part of the leadership team that builds the strategy to deliver Carlos Acosta’s artistic vision for BRB. Birmingham Royal Ballet proudly produces and tours some of the most iconic large-scale classical ballets throughout the UK and internationally. We are also leading the most ambitious commissioning programme of new work for a generation. Our Ballet Now programme was launched in 2017 as a five-year project to commission and present ten new ballets, complete with new orchestral scores and designs. At a cost of £2.2 million, Ballet Now is supported by the Oak Foundation and many individual donors. It has drawn international attention and has led to co-commissions with Dutch National Ballet and Queensland Ballet, Australia. “It’s fascinating to see what the young British choreographers are up to.” THE TIMES on Embrace by George Williamson, BRB’s 2nd Ballet Now commission (June 2018). Birmingham Royal Ballet: recruitment information for Director of Development, May 2019 page 2 of 7 A SPECIAL COMPANY LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Birmingham Royal Ballet traces its antecedents to the original Vic-Wells Ballet founded by Ninette de Valois in 1931. In 1946 by ‘Madam’ was invited to bring the Vic-Wells to the Royal Opera House as resident company and there our modern history began. In 1990, then Director Sir Peter Wright, brought the Company to Birmingham and BRB was born, taking up residence at brand new purpose built headquarters in Thorp Street. In 1995, Sir Peter stepped down and a young choreographer named David Bintley took over as Director. In July 2019, David Bintley CBE will himself will step down having led the company for almost 25 years. Carlos Acosta will inherit a Company in very great shape including an impressive, extensive catalogue of works featuring some of the finest ballets of the last 73- years and a rich history of successfully bringing world-class ballet to audiences everywhere. “Birmingham Royal Ballet dazzles their way through new and recent work, dancing with boldness and individuality.” The Independent – four stars (June 2018) We are proud of our home in the centre of Birmingham, one of the youngest and most diverse cities in Europe. From the traditional to the modern, our performances inspire, entertain and delight, delivering the highest standards of artistry in music, dance and design wherever we perform. Alongside our main-stage performances, we engage in many ways to introduce our art form to everyone. We aim to remove barriers to participation, introducing and providing access to ballet to those who may otherwise be unlikely to engage with dance and the arts. Every year, more than 20,000 participants aged from 0 – 90 take part in engagement and participation activity in Birmingham and across the UK. This includes 3,000 children from primary schools across Birmingham, many of whom live in areas of multiple deprivation, who have the opportunity to take part in workshops and audition for free ballet classes. Our Dance Track programme, celebrating 21 years of success this year, identifies upcoming talent from diverse backgrounds and offers access to free classes to those who may not otherwise have such opportunities. To date, individuals on this programme have secured places at world-renowned ballet schools, some of whom have gone on to have professional dancing careers. Birmingham Royal Ballet is the world’s only Ballet Company whose second Company - Freefall Dance Company - is a collective of highly gifted dancers with severe learning disabilities. Freefall provides the opportunity for these talented dancers to achieve beyond that which it is so often expected of them by society and themselves. The response to the disciplined approach of ballet produces amazing personal growth, Birmingham Royal Ballet: recruitment information for Director of Development, May 2019 page 3 of 7 fantastic performances, award-winning films and life-changing encounters. One of our key goals is to develop and expand this incredible programme still further. BRB’s Dreams projects connect the company with children and adults who train at local dance schools across the country. We offer them the opportunity to be taught by Company alumni and learn the actual choreography from some of the world’s great ballets. The finale of every Dreams project is seeing the students perform a real ballet on main stage, in authentic costume, against the actual ballet set and dancing alongside BRB’s Principal dancers. In 2020, Swan Lake Dreams performances will take place at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Southampton Mayflower and Plymouth Theatre. It is fundamental to BRB’s philosophy that great ballet should be available to everyone. We are committed to growing our audiences and will extend the reach of our work with significant new investment in digital development over the next two- years. Digital will not only help us attract new theatrical audiences, but better reflect the diversity of today’s cultural and entertainment landscape by offering new ways to discover, experiences and engage with BRB. It will also transform how BRB’s Development team manages its communication with BRB Friends and donors. Last year, our audience across the UK exceeded 180,000 people at over 140 performances in nine UK venues. We are dedicated to touring, with 90% of our performances outside the capital city (2017/18: 146 UK performances; 14 in London) but there is still opportunity to grow. 2019’s ‘Home from Home’ tour will bring live music and ballet to over 5,000 theatre-goers in towns around Birmingham with a focus on families and schools. Overall, the Midlands and Birmingham in particular, is becoming a national beacon for dance. The new Dance Hub opens alongside our Birmingham headquarters in Summer 2019. Funded by Arts Council England and featuring new studios, offices and commissioning opportunities, it will add to the Birmingham Hippodrome, DanceXchange and BRB’s emerging ‘dance campus’ on Southside. “I have been enjoying Birmingham Royal Ballet for 15 years and donating for much of that time. It is such a wonderful feeling to be a little part of the Company. I get to see rehearsals and meet members of the Company for my donations. Marvelous!” DONOR Birmingham Royal Ballet: recruitment information for Director of Development, May 2019 page 4 of 7 VISION FOR 2019-2022 Birmingham Royal Ballet is proud to be a world-leading company based in UK’s youngest city. We are committed to performing a classical and contemporary repertoire to diverse audiences throughout the UK and beyond. We support all Arts Council England’s objectives and are particularly committed to ensuring that more people have the opportunity to experience and participate in great art. The breadth of our touring pattern and our geographic reach remain hugely important to us, developing relationships with our audiences and funders today and well into the future. BRB’s 2018-2022 Business Plan (as an ACE National Portfolio Organisation) challenges us to: • Be a global leader in everything we do: provide unrivalled opportunities for dancers, musicians, designers and choreographers by working with them to develop their skills, from the earliest years of training through to career-long development. Our close relationships with The Royal Ballet School and Elmhurst Ballet School help to ensure that we have access to young artists of the finest talent. In fact, BRB is the largest single employer of graduates from The Royal Ballet School. We also seek out new artists working in ballet, design and music by commissioning with the advice of an international consortium of experts for the Ballet Now project. These approaches not only support choreographic development and the Creative Case for Diversity, but by working with young and diverse voices, experiencing today’s world, we will reflect the ideas, trends and aesthetics of the UK of today. • Be the place where new talent aspires to be: produce an annual programme of new creations and collaborations, and increase diversity across our creative collaborators through our ground-breaking Ballet Now programme.