SCOTTISH Ballet will be joined by Cira Robinson for the world premiere of Helen Pickett’s The Crucible at the Edinburgh International Festival.
The production will open the dance programme at the festival, on 3–5 August this summer.
Ballet Black’s senior artist, Robinson will join Scottish Ballet to dance the role of Tituba.
Ballet Black is the UK’s professional ballet company for international dancers of black and Asian descent.
Scottish Ballet's artistic director Christopher Hampson is a board member of Ballet Black and has choreographed two works for the company.
Robinson said: "I am thrilled to be guesting with Scottish Ballet in their performances of The Crucible at Edinburgh International Festival, and honoured to be given the opportunity to explore this role.’
Helen Pickett, choreographer of The Crucible, said: "It has been an incredible collaborative process working with Scottish Ballet to bring my vision of Arthur Miller's play to the stage. I am working with an exceptional creative team, Peter Salem, James Bonas, Emma Kingsbury and David Finn, and together we have translated this iconic drama into the powerful medium of dance."
Following the world premiere of The Crucible at Edinburgh International Festival, the production will tour to Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness in autumn 2019, before transferring to the USA in spring 2020.
www.scottishballet.co.uk
THE former principal clarinet of the RSNO and wind tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, John Cushing, will direct the first performance of the Scottish Clarinet Choir at Queen Victoria School in Dunblane on Sunday evening.
The launch concert, which will feature between 30 and 40 clarinetists playing instruments from the E flat instrument to the contrabass, is the first by a clarinet choir in Scotland.
The group, which formed earlier this year, is thought to be the largest ensemble of its kind in the UK, and is made up mostly of amateur players with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's Yann Ghiro as guest soloist.
Two world premieres, Oliver Searle's Millport Godzilla and Tom Wilson's Serenade 6, have been composed specially for the debut recital, for which admission is free with donations at the door. The concert begins at 7.15pm.
www.scottishclarinetchoir.co.uk
WIGTOWN’s international poetry prize has announced changes designed to "celebrate the richness of Scotland's three national languages."
For the first time the £1,500 prize will be open to English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots language poems.
The change marks the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019.
As in previous years there will also be dedicated categories, with top prizes of £500, for the best Scots and Scottish Gaelic poems.
A new pamphlet award has also been introduced commemorating Alastair Reid, who was born in Whithorn in 1926.
For the second year there will be a Dumfries and Galloway Fresh Voice Award to help nurture emerging poets based in, or from, the region.
Marjorie Lotfi Gill, chair of the Wigtown Book Festival Board of Trustees, said: "The Wigtown Poetry Prize has developed into one of the UK's best-established writing competitions and has been a launchpad for many writers' careers.
“With 2019 being the United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages it seemed like the ideal moment to look at what more we could do to support and promote poetry in Scots and Scottish Gaelic."
The winner of the Fresh Voice Award will have a residency at the Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre.
www.wigtownbookfestival.com
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