Sabbath ballet another way to honour Ozzy - dancer

Ozzy died in July, just days after Black Sabbath played their huge farewell homecoming show at Villa Park, in Birmingham

A ballet performance dedicated to late Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne will give fans another opportunity to relive the band's music and concerts, a dancer says.

Birmingham Royal Ballet is taking Black Sabbath – The Ballet on tour, starting with a homecoming performance at Birmingham Hippodrome later.

Created and premiered in 2023, the ballet uses full orchestrations of tracks such as Paranoid and Iron Man and new orchestral works inspired by the band's work. The opening night is dedicated to Ozzy, who died in July.

Worcester dancer Amelia Thompson said performing the ballet after his death made it all the more significant.

"Hopefully it gives the fans of Black Sabbath another opportunity to come and relive the music and the concerts that they fondly remember," Ms Thompson said.

The self-styled Prince of Darkness died at the age of 76, weeks after Sabbath's farewell show at Villa Park.

Thousands of fans cheered his coffin on its final journey through Birmingham, Ozzy's home city, on 30 July.

Costumes for the ballet include a black all-in-one, but also jeans, jackets and T-shirts

Ms Thompson said dancing to heavy metal was not as strange as it might seem.

"Obviously, compared to your average classical ballet music it's very, very different, but the music of Black Sabbath is very instrumental," she said.

"There are a lot of great beats to it that do really complement the way you can choreograph."

The 22-year-old also said that while it was a ballet, the costumes the dancers wore were not traditional.

"We wear black all-in-ones," she said. "Act two, we wear sort of casual attire, like jeans and jackets. We also incorporate some Black Sabbath original T-shirt designs."

On the day of his funeral, Ozzy's wife Sharon stopped to lay flowers in Birmingham's Broad Street, where fans had left hundreds of bouquets close to Black Sabbath Bridge

This month, the band's guitarist Tony Iommi said he wished Osbourne was alive to see the show go on tour.

He revealed Osbourne never got to see the ballet but had wanted to.

Iommi said he had never expected the music to be part of a ballet, but was delighted to see it happen.

The tour runs until 27 September.