Jersey Royal exporter Albert Bartlett’s factory in Trinity recently played host to a ballet performance – Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty.
A video of the dance, featuring first soloists with The Royal Ballet Reece Clarke and his partner, Fumi Kaneko, was released yesterday. In it, the pair dance in the middle of the factory while Jersey Royal seed potatoes are preparing to be ‘tucked in’ before being woken up in November and planted early in the new year.
Mr Clarke, who is an ambassador for Albert Bartlett and has worked with the company since 2012, said: ‘When we started talking through this project and heard that the seed potatoes go to sleep, The Sleeping Beauty was the natural choice to help tell the story. Everyone knows it; it’s super fun to dance and it’s always one of the highlights of our yearly programme of performances. It was a new and interesting challenge to perform in a potato factory in 30-degree heat, but we’re very happy with the finished piece.
‘It’s been an interesting six months, adjusting to rehearsing at home and performing on YouTube rather than in front of an audience. We’re now looking forward to returning to performing in front of a live audience in the near future.’
The factory also played host to the JEP Pride of Jersey Awards last year.
Michael Jarvis, head of marketing at Albert Bartlett, added: ‘We put a lot of care and attention into our precious little Jersey Royals, and since this is the time when we put them to sleep for a few months before they are planted, we thought we’d show them some extra love with this video. Both Reece and our Jerseys are very important to us, so it’s nice to able to combine the two of them in such a fun and entertaining way.’
