BRB: Birmingham, Ballet and Me

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Birmingham Royal Ballet perform David Bintley's world premiere - Cinderella.

David Bintley's Cinderella opened at the Hippodrome in November, but now a unique second version is to be performed.

This adaptation will have the same score and be on the same grand scale, but with a very different choreography team.

Eighty young people from inner city Birmingham, who have never danced before, have spent the last 18 months training with Birmingham Royal Ballet.

They will perform their take of Cinderella at the Hippodrome on Tuesday, 7 and Wednesday, 8 December.

Cultural Olympiad

Birmingham Royal Ballet celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2010

Ballet, Birmingham and Me, is a Dancing for the Games project inspired by London 2012 and is part of the Cultural Olympiad in the West Midlands.

Jonathan Edwards, Deputy Chair of London 2012 Nations & Regions and Craig Hassall, Cultural Advisor to the Cultural Olympiad, will be meeting the cast of Ballet, Birmingham and Me ahead of the premiere performance.

Inspiring young dancers

Ballet, Birmingham and Me, more commonly known as BB&Me is the follow up to the successful Ballet Hoo!

In 2006, as part of a TV documentary, 70 teenagers worked with Birmingham Royal Ballet, and performed Romeo & Juliet at the Hippodrome - watched by millions on TV.

Young dancers get the chance to perform on the Hippodrome stage

This time the performance is even bigger and the teenagers have created their own version of the classic fairytale Cinderella.

Over the last 18 months BB&Me participants have taken ballet lessons with professional dancers, been on courses in lighting, set design and costume with experts from Birmingham Royal Ballet's production team, and have written their own very different version of the story.

Charlotte, BB&Me participant said: "We all knew the scale of this project was huge, but I don't think any of us realised just how much money is being invested in our performance of Cinderella.

"It's an incredible responsibility we've been given - not many young people can say they've performed on stage at the Hippodrome."