Beauty and the Beast by the Northern Ballet

Northern Ballet has a new ballet production of Beauty and the Beast. I came across some press and foudn the ballet's website where these beautiful images were posted. Lovely. Wish I could see it! The images feature Martha Leebolt as Beauty with Ashley Dixon as the Beast. Photos by Jason Tozer.

From Traditional fairytale becomes ballet with a modern twist:

“I always go back to tales before Disney to find out where the stories come from. There are some wonderful Arabian versions of Beauty and the Beast that are quite dark but have a clear message. One version that inspired me years ago was the Cocteau movie which is wonderful, but that’s more for adults and I wanted to do something different,” says Nixon.

He wanted to give this classic fairytale a contemporary feel. “I was interested in how these ideas could apply to the world today. So the opening sequence looks like Made in Chelsea, or one of those reality TV shows, as well as a bit of a 50s look. It’s about how you look and being cool and yet into that I bring these fairies and sprites and goblins that everyone recognises from the story,” he says. “I wanted to use this idea of retail therapy and haute couture, so you see the girls coming home from their shopping trip with stacks of boxes and giant receipts and this led me to bring into the story this whole idea of debt. The father can’t pay these bills and the debt collectors come in from Gucci and they take the family home away and the family is left on the street.”