00:04My name is Sinead and I'm one of the tour guides here in the Royal Opera House, home of the
00:08Royal Ballet and Opera.
00:09We have had technically five different versions of our theatre.
00:13Our very first theatre was built and opened in 1732 by this lovely gentleman, John Rich.
00:18So, believe it or not, we have to start scheduling our operas up to five years in advance.
00:24This is to make sure that we can have the absolute best of the best of these world-class performers
00:30and, of course, their schedules fill up quite quickly.
00:33Thankfully, we schedule our ballets about two years in advance.
00:36So, that means that our ballets and operas can work in harmony together in our fantastic schedule each year.
00:43So, welcome to our props department at the Royal Opera House.
00:46We are very lucky to be able to make and build our own props on site.
00:52Everything is done by our teams in the building.
00:55So, here we are looking directly behind the stage itself.
00:59This is where we keep all of our sets.
01:02So, at any one time, we can have up to five different productions back here,
01:06which means we can do up to six different productions on the stage in a single week.
01:11When it comes to making costumes for our production,
01:14our costume department is hands down the biggest in the building with about 220 full-time staff members.
01:20For a ballet, we could easily have 14 or 15 different dancers playing the same principal role on stage.
01:26That means that each of those principal dancers has to have their own tutu that is especially fitted to their
01:32body.
01:33It needs to fit them absolutely perfectly.
01:35A tutu, you're on average probably looking at about 40 to 50 hours of work.
01:39But, of course, it does depend on the detail that's gone into it as well.
01:43This is how we store all of our tutus.
01:45It's always good to see a lovely little tutu pole.
01:48We've got some beautiful ones here from Alice in Wonderland.
01:52You can see lovely shapes of the playing cards.
01:55And the best thing about this is that it's on wheels.
01:57So, it's really easy to move around the building.
02:00So, we go through roughly 6,000 to 7,000 pairs of pointe shoes every single year at the Royal
02:07Ballet and Opera.
02:07So, when the shoes arrive, they are very plain and simple.
02:10The dancers have to add on their own ribbons and elastics.
02:13They will darn the point and they will break the shoe in doing things like smacking them along the floor
02:19or popping them in the crook of the door and slamming the door shut.
02:23Once they've sewn on their ribbons and elastics, they're ready to wear.
02:26And they will start by wearing them in class, then in rehearsals.
02:29And finally, when those shoes are at that sweet spot, they can wear them on stage,
02:33which may mean that we even dye them to make sure that they are perfect for the character that they're
02:38playing.
02:38This is worn by one of the footmen in Cinderella.
02:41And if you look very carefully, you'll see all of these tiny holes in the nose.
02:45And that's actually how they're able to get their airflow and how they're able to see out as well.
