Inspired by Margery Williams‘ tale.

balletLORENT invites you into a magical world with their retelling of The Velveteen Rabbit suitable for children aged 4+ years.

Toys come to life through the magic of storytelling, music, and dance. A toy rabbit and a boy embark on an adventure about growing up and the meaning of love.

At the end of each performance, children are offered an opportunity to interact with the costumed performers.

Liv Lorent says “I fell in love with the story of the Velveteen Rabbit a few years ago, and felt that the quest for acceptance as an individual is at the heart of many stories we have created as a company.

“This production is devoted to our youngest audience members, and their accompanying adults. We believe this treasured story is relevant to many of us on different levels, and we are so happy to share our version with you.”

balletLORENT is female led, and is the North East England’s leading Dance Theatre company dedicated to creating ambitious, inclusive, high quality work, touring to the UK’s most prestigious theatres. Our mission is to create world class, distinctive dance, for diverse family and adult audiences and participants of all ages, life experience, culture and background, with performances that refuse to be elitist or mystifying.

The enduring strength and longevity of balletLORENT’s 30yr lifespan is fuelled by Artistic Director Liv Lorent’s commitment to innovation, determination to create dance theatre for people with limited access to arts and culture, and passion to broaden opportunities for the professional artists and diverse communities we engage with.

We communicate work which is unmistakably made from a female vantage point and with feminist sensibility through dance theatre stories with a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome to find joy and connection with others.

The company was founded by Liv Lorent (MBE) in 1993 and has toured works nationally and internationally to much acclaim, including: Strange Glitter; The Ball; la nuit intime; Angelmoth; Designer Body; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Underneath the Floorboards The Night Ball and Love Struck. balletLORENT’s recent artistic programme has focused on the making of a trilogy of fairytales, directed by Liv Lorent and retold by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. These works captured family audiences and include Rapunzel, Snow White and Rumpelstiltskin, continuing the collaboration with the most recent fairytale, an original story by Carol Ann Duffy, The Lost Happy Endings.

The company enjoys working with individual performers who are diverse in terms of their age (22-58) and experience. Many works created since the early beginnings of balletLORENT have featured an intergenerational cast and have included children, older people and pregnant women alongside the professional dancers. These large scale works of 20 to 80 dancers include PassAge to Passion; Life Stories; La Famille; and MaEternal. balletLORENT’s fairytale stories are enhanced by a community cast of children who join the professional dancers on stage in each place we tour.

Liv and the Company have received many awards, including the Jerwood Choreography Award 2001; the Arts Foundation Choreography Award 2005; A Herald Angel Award LUXURIA 2006 (a commissioned work by Scottish Dance Theatre); four Journal Culture Awards: Artist of the Year 2008; Performance of the Year (Rapunzel) 2012, Finalist in the Arts Council of England category (Snow White) 2016 and Performance of the Year (Rumpelstiltskin) 2017; Finalist for Best Independent Company at the Critic’s Circle National Dance Awards 2019; Fantastic for Families Audience Choice Award (Rumpelstiltskin) 2019; Finalist in One Dance UK Awards Innovation in Dance 2019. Liv received her MBE for services to dance in 2014.

The company has collaborated with international companies including; Carte Blanche, Bergen in 2009 for a remount of la nuit intime; Eunetstar in 2005 for a European Street Art Festival tour of The Ferryman; and Cultuurcentrum Brugge programmed The Ball in 2005 at Koninklijke Stadsschouwburg.

The Company is a Sadler’s Wells National Partner.

balletLORENT is funded as a National Portfolio Organisation by Arts Council of England. The Company became a registered charity in 2015.

Inspired by Margery Williams’ tale
Retold by Ben Crompton
Direction and Choreography Liv Lorent

Cast
Natalie MacGillivray The Velveteen Rabbit
Gavin Coward The Man and Boy
Toby Fitzgibbons Ragdoll, Wild Rabbit, Soldier
Virginia Scudeletti Skin Horse, Playroom Fairy, Pink Dolly
Berta Admetlla Wild Rabbit, Monkey, Dog
Montaine Ponceau Wild Rabbit, Robot

Collaborators
Creative Partners Geoff Hopson and Debbi Purtill
Movement contribution by the dancers
Retold and narrated by Ben Crompton
Costume and Set Designer Nasir Mazhar
Music composed and played by Murray Gold and Albie Crompton
Lighting Designer Malcolm Rippeth
Tour Re-Lighter Michael Morgan
Production/Stage Manager Andrea Scrimshaw
LX Technican/Stage Manager Sam Vivash
Wardrobe Manager Lou Duffy
Technical Support Chris Tindall
Voice of the Rabbit Emmy Crompton
Sound Editors James Hall and Thomas Bagnall
Set Build Wood Hub CIC
Scenic Painting Robin Forster, Aiden MacGillivray, Rebecca Glendenning-Laycock and Emily Crozier
Early Years Advisor Miranda Thain, Hullabaloo

Sadler’s Wells presentation of The Velveteen Rabbit is kindly supported by The Mohn Westlake Foundation