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Around town meets...
Internationally renowned ballet
choreographer David Bintley
 Around Town is delighted to meet internationally renowned ballet choreographer David Bintley who today spends part of his working life in Japan, but whose heart still remains in the Holme Valley.
Internationally acclaimed dance choreographer David Bintley admits he was stage struck at the tender age of four.
David, who hails from Honley and whose family still live in the local area, is today the Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet and is shortly to take up a new post as Director of the National Ballet of Japan.
Such prestigious positions much have surely been a dream for the young Holme Valley boy who started dancing at the age of four with the local Audrey Spencer School of Dancing and who could regularly be seen performing in local productions.
“I admit I was stage struck even at such a young age. I always knew I wanted to be on the stage and dancing with the Audrey Spencer school was a great grounding for me. By the time I reached the age of 14 or 15 I was gaining experience in classical ballet,” says David.
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 “Even though I am now based in Birmingham and more recently spending time in Japan, I still come back to Honley to see the family regularly and was back here at Christmas.”
Although David, who has been awarded the CBE in 2001 for his services to ballet, always had clear and ambitious ideas of what he wanted to do with his life, he could hardly have predicted he would rise to such heights at a relatively young age.
Speaking about his role in Japan, David says: “I was asked to stage my production of Carmina Burana in Japan about three years ago and had a great time. The audiences really enjoyed it.”
Following this success David put together a new full length ballet, Aladdin, for the Japanese audiences.
“About 18 months ago I was asked if I was interested in becoming a director of the company, the National Ballet of Japan. Of course this is a shared role with Birmingham but I am now the Artistic Consultant for Japan and will become Director in Autumn 2010.
 “This means I will probably spend about four months a year in Japan. I do spend a lot of time in airplanes and hotels but the Japanese offer was a total surprise and came completely out of the blue.”
Ballet, says David, is very big in Japan and audiences just love to visit the ballet and enjoy a performance. More recently David and the Birmingham Royal Ballet have also visited China for a three-week tour and are due to visit America in the near future.
“I am very keen to take ballet forward in Japan and see it progress. It really will be a great experience and a chance to work in this part of the world. Life is pretty good at the moment and also extremely busy.”
 Ask David about his early life and many of his memories as a young boy revolve around music, particularly as both his mother and father were keen musicians. In one recent interview, he recalled early memories of jazz and brings to mind Stranger on the Shore as one of the earliest tunes he knew.
By the age of 12 however David was mesmerised by the music of Stravinsky, so it is hardly a surprise that he has often turned to this composer for inspiration for his work.
David has also always been keen to commission new music for his ballets, examples being his adaptation of old favourites Far From The Madding Crowd and Hobson’s Choice.
Today David is recognised as one of this country’s finest choreographers with an international reputation and his ballets are performed by companies across the world.
 After training as a dancer at the Royal Ballet School, he quickly proved an outstanding character dancer. In 1976 he joined the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet (now Birmingham Royal Ballet) and quickly began to dance lead roles, leaving many mesmerised by his outstanding performances.
He was lucky to have encouragement in his wish to choreograph and his first professional work for the Sadler’s Wells company was The Outsider which displayed a stimulating and knowledgeable choice of music in its score by Bohac.
In 1982 David took a sabbatical to look at both American and German dance which was to extend his imaginative range. Shortly afterwards he moved from being resident choreographer for Sadler’s Wells to an equivalent role at Covent Garden.
When, in 1993, he left to work as a freelance, seven different companies around the world immediately commissioned new work from him. In 1995 he was appointed Artistic Director at Birmingham.
Some of his more noteable works over the years have included the ever-popular family favourite ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Cafe, The Snow Queen, Cyrano, Edward II and Arthur.
The secret of his success as a choreographer appears to be the ability to spot the right dancer for the right role. He has a gift for putting programmes together and making the dancers, and the company, feel ultra confident in their performances.
New for 2009 is a reworked version of his ballet Sylvia which is a bubbling romantic ballet comedy for all the family. This is currently going on tour across the UK with the nearest performances to this area being at The Lowry in Salford.
David says: “I came to Birmingham with the view to being creative and today I believe we have not only successfully secured the future of the company but the whole dance culture in the city of Birmingham. We are geared for great things.”
No wonder his family in Honley are extremely proud of his achievements!?
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