When Peter Wright first created his production of The Sleeping Beauty for the renovated Birmingham Hippodrome in 1984, it was a significant stepping stone on the way to the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet’s move to the West Midlands city, where it became the Birmingham Royal Ballet, a jewel in the crown of the council’s policy of reviving the fortunes of the city through generous support of the arts.
How times change. The company’s current artistic director, Carlos Acosta, has mounted a 40th-anniversary revival just as the bankrupt local authority has withdrawn support from all the arts organisations it once part-funded. Birmingham Royal Ballet will survive, but the cut is a sign of how far artistic ambition in national and local government has receded from the high-water mark that this handsome, expansive production represents.
