Dance gets world’s first heavy metal ballet

In a rehearsal studio in central England, dancers are getting to grips with new, heavy metal-inspired ballet steps. Moving gracefully in unison, the team pirouettes with air guitar, leaps with head banging as they rehearse for 'Welcome to Black Sabbath - The Ballet.'

The full-length, three-act ballet opens in Birmingham, in September before going on tour. Rehearsals have just begun.

"I just couldn't imagine how they'd do ballet to Black Sabbath and then I thought well maybe they're going to use the softer tracks, but no they went for 'Black Sabbath', 'War Pigs', 'Iron Man.''I think I was just really intrigued." said Carlos Acosta, artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

The ballet is the story of four young men who went from the factory floor to one of the most successful bands in heavy metal music history.

Black Sabbath's original line-up was Osbourne, Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. They were instrumental in creating heavy metal in the early 1970s with dark and high-volume guitars coupled with a keen interest in the occult.

Musically, composer Chris Austin said it had been difficult to know where to start as the Black Sabbath back catalogue was so huge. But he said once they narrowed it down it had been easy to be inspired by the music's 'glorious irregularity' and 'enormous shifts of tempo', combined with Osbourne's early 'stratospheric' vocals.