BIRMINGHAM Royal Ballet return to York Theatre Royal tomorrow and Saturday for the first time since 2013 to present works inspired by Shakespeare in honour of the 400th anniversary of his death.

BRB played the Grand Opera House on their last visit to York last May during the Theatre Royal's refurbishment project but switch back to their regular hosts for their latest mid-scale touring production in the company of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

Tomorrow and Saturday's programme begins with Wink, a new piece by American choreographer Jessica Lang that captures the poetry of Shakespeare’s sonnets in a one-act ballet composed by Jakub Ciupinski.

There follows a series of excerpts from much loved ballets, taking in the romantic balcony pas de deux from Prokofiev’s Romeo And Juliet, the pas de deux from Mendelssohn’s The Dream and the fiery fight pas de deux from Scarlatti’s The Taming Of The Shrew.

The Moor’s Pavane by Henry Purcell, premiered in 1949, concludes the performance by distilling the passion and drama of Othello into a one-act tragedy tightly focused on Othello, Iago, Desdemona and Amelia and their jealousies.

York Press:

Brandon Lawrence and Delia Mathews rehearsing Birmingham Royal Ballet's Wink. Picture: Andrew Ross

In the BRB company, just as he was last spring at the Grand Opera House, is Yorkshireman Brandon Lawrence, who will perform in the Jessica Lang premiere and dance the role of Othello in the Purcell piece. "Jessica works a lot with sculptures and shapes of the body and she uses the words of the sonnets for the effect they have," says the Bradford dancer.

"I play the poet in this work, which has five sonnets running through it, and it's a very fresh piece that definitely has her stamp on it."

This is the second time Brandon has performed a Lang piece. "I did one in my first season at Birmingham Royal Ballet, dancing two roles when she created Lyric Pieces, which York has seen on tour," he says. "I was lucky enough to be cast in that, which gave me the chance to work alongside Jessica."

Whereas the focus in Wink is on shape, sculpture and creating the story, The Moor's Pavane is "not so much a classical ballet but has a baroque feeling to it that aids the tragedy and the darkness" in Othello's story. "No-one goes off stage in this piece and yet there are still certain private moments, which are denoted by the showing of the Moor's handkerchief," says Brandon.

Should you be wondering what Brandon will be doing next, you will have to venture south to the Bristol Hippodrome to see him as Kate's suitor Petruchio in The Taming Of The Shrew, Shakespeare's battle of the sexes choreographed by John Cranko to the baroque score of Domenico Scarlatti, from June 29 to July 2.

Birmingham Royal Ballet perform at York Theatre Royal tomorrow at 7.30pm and on Saturday at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk