‘Hate to be predictable’: Acosta brings Black Sabbath ballet to Birmingham

City gets ready for world's first heavy metal dance experience' celebrating the music of Ozzy and Co

This is definitely the first time I've asked dancers to pirouette and headbang in the same sequence," said the choreographer Pontus Lidberg after rehearsals at Birmingham Hippodrome.

Minutes earlier, the room had been filled with the sound of heavy guitar riffs, pounding drums and screeching synths, a far cry from the twinkling notes of the Nutcracker that ballet dancers are more accustomed to.