Black Sabbath The Ballet rehearsals begin

Rehearsals have begun for what is being billed as the world’s first heavy metal dance experience - Black Sabbath The Ballet.

The show where pirouettes meet Paranoid is set to open in September at Birmingham Hippodrome in the band's home city, with further dates in Plymouth and London to be be announced.

Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi said the pairing was a "great idea" but he had initially thought "how on earth are they going to do that"?

He said he knew "not a dot" about dance, having never been to a ballet.

Eight classic tracks, including Paranoid, Iron Man, War Pigs and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, have been re-orchestrated, with new compositions inspired by the band also to be played live by an orchestra.

Birmingham Royal Ballet's artistic director, Carlos Acosta, said: "One of the things that I wanted to do when I joined Birmingham Royal Ballet was to bring awareness of the treasure that this city had give to the world, and Black Sabbath is a perfect fit.

"It's a subject that opens curiosity because we come from the ballet world, and then the heavy metal world - what's going to be the negotiation, what's going to be the product at the end and that excites me."

The idea for the project had come to the Cuban-born dancer while he was on a flight to Havana about 10 years ago.

"I found myself with Jimmy Page and my actor friend Clive Owen, and I started to, back then, play with the idea of doing a ballet with rock music.

"At the time the more I thought about it, Black Sabbath was the way to go."

He added the band's music had a "lot of melodic feels" and there was a lot to choose from.

Black Sabbath's frontman Ozzy Osbourne announced he was retiring from performing in February, saying he was too weak to continue.

The singer is due to have another operation in the United States where he lives, according to Iommi.

"He's okay - I heard from him a couple of days ago, he's doing all right," the guitarist said.

"But he's dying to get back here - he really wants to come back to England and live here again."