Matthew Bourne to stage Red Shoes ballet

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PA

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Sir Matthew Bourne is known as one of Britain’s most popular and accessible ballet choreographers due to his contemporary takes on the classics

Leading choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne is to create a ballet version of the classic Oscar-winning dance film The Red Shoes, it has been announced.

The work will be premiered at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in November before playing at London’s Sadler’s Wells over the Christmas season.

Sir Matthew is best known for his contemporary takes on classic ballets such as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.

He most notably made headlines when using a male ensemble for Swan Lake.

The Red Shoes is a 1948 British film about a young ballerina who becomes the principal dancer in a new ballet called The Red Shoes, based on the supernatural fairytale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen.

The dancer Victoria Page dreams of being the greatest in the world as she takes on the role of a young woman who comes under the spell of a beautiful but “possessed” pair of red shoes.

Victoria lives for her dance passion but her ambitions turn into a nightmare of obsession and power with tragic consequences – much like the fairytale she is re-enacting.

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New Adventures

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The starring role of Victoria will be played by Ashley Shaw who is the principal dancer for Sir Matthew’s company New Adventures

Sir Matthew, who was knighted in the recent New Year Honours, said it had been a “long held ambition” to bring The Red Shoes to the stage.

“It is set in the theatrical world of a touring dance company. It is actually about dance and dancers, a world that we all understand so well,” he said.

“However, the film’s genius is to make that theatrical world at times surreal, larger than life and highly cinematic. My challenge will be to capture some of that surreal, sensuous quality within the more natural theatre setting.”

For The Red Shoes, Sir Matthew will use the music of the “golden age of Hollywood” composer Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann is best known for his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock. He also composed scores for many other movies, including Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Taxi Driver.

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New Adventures

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Sir Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty’s is infused with gothic influences, most notably the inclusion of vampires in the story

Sir Matthew added: “It has been fascinating to discover how much of this music lends itself to storytelling through dance and this production will, I believe, be the first full length ballet to celebrate his unique music.”

The starring role of Victoria will be played by Ashley Shaw, who is the principal dancer for Bourne’s company New Adventures, with which she has been performing since 2009. She is currently performing as Aurora in Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, which is touring the UK.

The Red Shoes will open at the Theatre Royal Plymouth on 21 November before moving to London’s Sadler’s Wells for eight weeks from 6 December.

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