Access

Northern Ballet Theatre strives to make every aspect of its work accessible and inclusive. We work with some venues to deliver assisted performances and ensure a considerable part of our education work is fully accessible and delivered with special needs schools and other client groups with specific access needs in mind. We are in the process of developing an access policy which will be available shortly and will be training all our teaching staff to deliver fully accessible classes. We welcome disabled participants to our Youth Dance programme, though physical access to our base at West Park, is currently restricted.

Even though places on our classical training programmes (Associates and YYD) are through audition, we also actively welcome applications from disabled candidates who feel they would benefit from the physical rigours of the training.

This website has been designed to be as accessible as possible to all users, however if you have any problems accessing information we will be happy to provide you with a plain text version of any page. Please email online@northernballettheatre.co.uk with the title of any pages you would like, or any topics you are interested in, and we will email you back a plain text version.

We encourage comments and suggestions on all aspects of access to Northern Ballet Theatre’s work including this website: please email comments to:

selina.mcgonagle@northernballettheatre.co.uk.

Assisted Performances

British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation and Captioning
Our productions are primarily based on live music and dance performance, with the very occasional spoken or sung text in productions such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream (very last scene) and A Christmas Carol (occasional singing and spoken word) and I got Rhythm (singing throughout).

Nearly every Northern Ballet Theatre production is narrative (story and character based) and highly theatrical, benefiting from extravagant, visually exciting set, costume and lighting designs. This is why performances have proven to be very popular with deaf audiences in the past. Some venues have BSL interpreted pre-performance talks, such as the Deaf Debating Dance evenings at Sadler’s wells Theatre, which are also accompanied by a Deaf facilitator throughout the evening. We recommend deaf or hard of hearing patrons book seats in the front rows in most venues, in order to have the full benefit of the live orchestra, however, please check with each venue for recommendations and loop facilities.

Audio description and Touch Tour
Our audio descriptions are preceded by a two-hour education workshop which give participants the opportunity to experience and find out more about the key choreographic elements of a show. The practical elements of the workshop are designed for visually impaired people who have no previous dance experience, and are inclusive of any access needs.

Performance Venue Access
For information about access to each venue where Northern Ballet Theatre perform please contact the venue directly. Details for each venue are listed on the tour schedule and box office information page.

Access to Northern Ballet Theatre home
Our current home in the West Park Centre has limited access: the ground floor and Hall (used for occasional dance and music rehearsal) are fully accessible to wheelchair users and people with ambulant disabilities. Our offices and main dance studios are on the first floor, which is not serviced by a lift. Our future home in Quarry Hill in the city centre of Leeds will be fully accessible following extensive access consultation at the design stage of the building process.

Alternative Programme Formats
Large print cast lists are available in most venues. Most venues have their own season brochure on cassette, in braille or in large print.

Schools
We have a good track record for delivering education activities that are challenging and stimulating in a wide variety of school settings, including integrated groups and groups with special needs. Examples of such work include the continued partnership with Shepherds School in Nottingham. To book similar workshops please contact the Learning & Access coordinator joanne.dean@northernballettheatre.co.uk.

Community work
We are committed and eager to develop our work in the community in an integrated and inclusive way, so we are keen to hear from any community groups who would like to work together on educational activities.