Riffs and tutus: Black Sabbath ballet to be staged in Birmingham

Rock band to lend eight songs to the world's first heavy metal dance experience' performed by Carlos Acosta's Birmingham Royal Ballet in September

A ballet soundtracked by the music of Black Sabbath will premiere in September, Birmingham Royal Ballet's director Carlos Acosta has announced.

Billed as the world's first heavy metal dance experience", the three-act ballet will feature eight songs by the Brummie band, including Paranoid, Iron Man, War Pigs and the eponymous Black Sabbath, re-orchestrated for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia - with added drums and electric guitars. The rest of the score will be newly composed, inspired by the band's music.