Birmingham Royal Ballet paid a visit to Malvern’s Priory Park this week to film a trailer for an upcoming production.

The trailer is for Hobson’s Choice, which is being performed as part of the company’s summer season at the Birmingham Hippodrome and at London’s Sadler’s Wells.

Principal dancer Samara Downs and soloist Lachlan Monaghan, who perform the roles of Maggie Hobson and Will Mossop in the ballet, were filmed in the park’s Victorian band stand.

The duo was joined by the company’s artistic director and award-winning choreographer, David Bintley CBE, who will be stepping down from the company in July after 24 years as director.

Considered by many to be David’s signature piece, Hobson’s Choice was premiered at the Royal Opera House in 1989 and received a standing ovation the likes of which had not been seen since the premiere of Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée in 1960.

With a score by Paul Reade - composer of themes for The Antiques Roadshow and The Flumps - the ballet has remained hugely popular ever since.

The company will return to Malvern next month, performing for the first time ever at the Festival Theatre with its spring tour which will showcase two new pieces: Peter and the Wolf and Seasons in Our World.

Ruth Brill’s far-reaching retelling of the much-loved Peter and the Wolf, choreographed to Sergei Prokofiev’s familiar score, featuring narration by acclaimed poet and spoken word artist Hollie McNish, marks Brill’s fourth choreographic commission for Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Drawing on influences of physical theatre and street-dance, but rooted in the vocabulary of classical ballet, Peter and the Wolf remains faithful to the essence of the original fable, whilst transposing the action to a modern-day, urban landscape adding a refreshed impetus reflecting topical issues in today’s society. In this bold reimagining, Peter is a fearless, determined and inquisitive young woman.

Seasons in Our World is choreographed for ten dancers by Company dancers Laura Day, Kit Holder and Lachlan Monaghan to a new score by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian. This inventive new ballet explores the perpetual cycle of the seasons, examining the changing relationship between nature and human beings, focussing on both positive and negative impacts. Seasons in Our World is inspired by a poem by David Eric Laing, HM Lord Lieutenant for Northamptonshire.

Birmingham Royal Ballet will visit Malvern Festival Theatre from May 21 – 22.

Tickets are available from https://www.malvern-theatres.co.uk