65 bmp was inspired by Naomi's experience as a deaf dancer. Noticing that she relied heavily on musical counts, the piece was created to give others an insight into the learning process, and highlights the importance of beat and rhythm. A proactive endeavour, this piece set to only a metronome is a challenge for dancers and audience alike, inviting both to find feeling, emotion, and meaning in the absence of music.

A Christmas Tale is a one-act ballet set in the late Victorian Christmas. The music is taken from several carol symphonies, the most famous being by Victor Hely-Hutchinson.

In Katrina’s own words "I have indulged myself by paying tribute to some of my ballet teachers via the names of some characters".

Exploring themes of isolation and belonging, Antarctica is a contemporary ballet inspired by the Southern Ocean, the latest ocean to be recognised and the southernmost body of water on Earth. Taking inspiration from the cold yet fragile beauty of these waves, the piece features a glacier that enters the water before joining with the Southern Ocean in unity, moving with the larger body as part of the natural landscape.

This new ballet for 2014 is a piece of pure dance. Katrina was interested in exploring the possibilities of an ensemble cast of dancers - using a corps not as a background but as the main body of the dance. She was inspired in part by the way in which Balanchine uses ensembles in works such as Symphony in C. The dancers in Black/White wear either black or white costumes, enabling her to play around with the different patterns that can be created. There are no principal roles; instead eight female dancers take it in turns to be partnered by the two male leads.

As seems to be the trademark with Katrina's choreography, this 15-minute ballet to two Rossini overtures is packed with intricate detail, but she very pleased with the way in which Chelsea Ballet's dancers have risen to the challenge!

This ballet, created by Chelsea Ballet member Cassandra Jacobs, is based on the popular Japanese animated television series, using the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi.

In Cassandra's eyes Inuyasha was a ballet waiting to be choreographed, Kaoru Wada had done the hard work of providing theme music for each of the characters and she just needed to work out how she could condense all those episodes into a reasonable lengthen ballet. The ballet doesn’t tell the whole story of Inuyasha only parts of it which is why the title has the word ‘impression’ in it. Cassandra chose her favourite moments from the anime. There were many problems she faced when creating this ballet, such as every episode she watched Inuyasha was slicing up demons with his sword, how was she going to bring that to life on stage? Cassandra has come to realise that problem solving brings forth creativity and you need to come and watch the ballet to see how she overcame that difficulty.

Cassandra has created a union between ballet technique and the martial art iaido.

Katrina had the idea at the back of her head for a long while that Pride and Prejudice could make a great piece for Chelsea Ballet. This short work introduces the family members and gives the dancers a chance to establish their characters within a lively group number - long-suffering Mr Bennet, histrionic Mrs Bennet, gentle Jane, witty Elizabeth, gauche Mary, hanger-on Kitty and flirtatious, headstrong Lydia. Rather than being a corps supporting a lead character, the dancers all have their own identities to get their teeth into.

Katrina believes that it is a piece that the audience can immediately connect with, as the story and characters are so familiar, as is the music (from the famous 1995 BBC adaptation).

Ideas are in motion to extend this into a full-length ballet. There is so much to work with - ball scenes, romantic pas de deux, elopement and arguments, plus lots of interesting roles for female dancers of all ages. A lot of fun is to be had with preposterous characters like Mr Collins and Lady Catherine de Burgh. The only snag is the number of male roles entailed - so any budding Mr Darcys, please get in touch!

Chelsea Ballet were invited to choreograph a ballet to Chris Mowatt’s brass version of the last six movements Bela Bartok’s Mikrokosmos.

On Saturday, 24th September 2011, the Imre Varga statute of Bela Bartok returned to Malvern Court, South Kensington and was unveiled by the Mayor of Kensington and David Mellor. Chelsea Ballet performed The Bracelet to the accompaniment of the Guildhall School of Music Brass Ensemble.

The music 'Serenades for Strings and Winds' by Antonin Dvořák recalled and lead Reiko to imagine the long 50 years history of Chelsea Ballet with the legacy of the founder, Thelma Litster , and her daughter Louise Hudson, the current Director at Chelsea Ballet.

This piece is dedicated to them, and the dancers who have danced with the company over the decades.

While pregnant and taking something of a back seat at Chelsea Ballet, Katrina was asked to create a pas de deux for Wei Li Cheah and Stuart Lorraine. She wanted to draw on the heritage of storytelling that runs through English ballet and has always been one of Chelsea Ballet's strengths. She hit upon the idea of creating a short dance inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of the Red Shoes, which famously features as the ballet within the film of the same name.

In Katrina's version, a magical shoemaker presents a young girl with a pair of red ballet shoes. She begins to dance for joy, only to discover that the shoes will not stop dancing and cannot be removed. They eventually force her to dance to an exhausted death, leaving the enigmatic shoemaker alone with the shoes and feelings of remorse, pride or awe at what he has achieved - Katrina leaves this for the audience to decide.

She chose peasant-style costumes and music from Dvorak's Slavonic Dances to enhance the Mitteleuropean, fairytale feel. She also incorporated steps with an earthy, national dance feel to help reinforce this setting.

Katrina enjoyed the challenge of telling a story in just a few minutes and conveying through her choreography the female dancer's gamut of emotions, from spirited and light-hearted to desperate and finally resigned to her fate. Katrina was lucky to be working with a very expressive dancer with beautiful technique - when she came to dance the role herself she regretted a little just how fast and furious she had made it!

For Cassandra it is the music that inspires her to choreograph yet this time it was the prop used in the pas de deux, the lute that was her starting point. It lead her to realise the only fitting music for this choreography was if it was played on a lute. The first section of the piece is mainly mime and easily fell into place. It was the second section that tested her ability as a choreographer. The idea to present a formal courtship dance where the female role has no intension of romance. Cassandra found there could be no forward planning of ideas, inspiration only flowed by working with the male dancer.

This was Tony’s first attempt at a full-length ballet. The choice of subject was restricted by Chelsea Ballet’s perpetual shortage of male dancers, but this story essentially required only two and one being a dwarf made it all the more suitable in view of Tony’s own lack of height in contrast to that of the company’s principal ballerina – although by the time rehearsals started she had left Chelsea Ballet and that visual interest was lost. Another important consideration was the wealth of incident in this story, enough to keep the audience’s attention he hoped, despite his derivative choreography.

Creating the score is always the most enjoyable element and music for this came from Verdi’s Sicillian Vespers, Massenet’s Cendrillon and Shostakovich’s Ballet Suites.

Valence is the first piece that Ruth has choreographed and was performed in December 2018.

When used in science, the term 'valence' is used to measure the relative capacity to unite, react, or interact. In this ballet, we follow the journey of a trio who being life in equilibrium, but through interaction with their environment, break away and become individuals before discovering a new harmony as unique, complimentary forms.

Thelma and her husband, Clive, were on holiday in the Czech Republic when they heard a piece of music by the Czech composer. Thelma decided there and then she would choreograph a ballet for 8 dancers and it has been performed ever since. Louise reproduced Waltz Ballerinas for Harlow Ballet Association.