Our Culture Club went to an audio described performance of Northern Ballet’s Swan Lake at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre recently. Just prior to that, they attended a Touch Tour, and what a fantastic, engaging experience it was!   We met the lady who was going to do the audio describing during the show. Then we met two of the dancers, who talked everyone through several of the dance positions so that our clients knew what the audio describer was talking about during the performance.

Not only did they describe and demonstrate these, but they asked everyone if they would like to have a go at actually doing them! This was a great way to involve everyone and of course helped everyone to remember the moves for later. 

Then we were shown a few of the props and some of the beautiful costumes, headdresses and ballet shoes. Our clients were asked to feel them and we listened to descriptions of the materials and colours and the way that they were made. 

One of our clients who is completely blind, had never been to a ballet before, said “I didn’t know what to expect, but the music and description gelled really well together and I was enthralled with it – it was as if everything else around you didn’t exist. 

“Because we had done the Touch Tour before the performance and had the information about the different moves it really helped, and the audio description was great.”

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