Bradford Alhambra's commitment to championing the best in dance from around the world
If you regularly turn to these theatre pages of the Yorkshire Post, you’ll already know this, but as people are beginning to realise that Bradford really was The UK’s city of culture all along, it bears repeating. Bradford is home to one of the county’s most committed-to-quality-dance theatres.
Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield does some really fine work in bringing cutting edge contemporary dance to the stage, but the Alhambra in Bradford has shown serious and impressive commitment to bringing the very best in dance from around the world to Yorkshire for over two decades now.
The aspect of this that is most remarkable is that it hasn’t always worked. Sometimes the shows the Alhambra brought to town in the past haven’t pulled in the biggest of audiences - but the theatre leaders have kept the faith - and it has been richly rewarded.
One name that has always pulled in a crowd for the Alhambra is one of the biggest in the world of British dance; Matthew Bourne.
The dancer whose company these days is known as New Adventures, is back again this month with a double-Olivier award winning show that has proved another absolute banker of a show for the choreographer Bourne.
The Red Shoes was a sell-out even before its world premiere in 2016 and returned for a national tour in 2019. An adaptation of the legendary film, Bourne is bringing it back ths year, a decade after its first showing.
“I have loved the film since I was a teenager with its depiction of a group of people all passionate about creating something magical and beautiful. It seemed to be saying that art was something worth fighting for, even dying for, if the rather melodramatic conclusion is to be believed. It was a world full of glamour, romance and creativity populated by larger-than-life personalities. In short, it was a world that I wanted to be part of,” says Bourne.
“The film’s genius though was to take that highly theatrical world and turn it into a highly cinematic, and at times, surreal piece of film-making. My challenge has been to capture some of that surreal, sensuous quality within the more natural theatre setting.”
A timeless fairytale and an Academy Award-winning movie, The Red Shoes is a powerful tale of obsession and one girl’s dream to be the greatest dancer in the world. Victoria Page lives to dance but her ambitions become a fierce struggle between the two men who inspire her passion.
The legendary Powell and Pressburger film has become a classic of cinema.
“It’s the story that Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger fashioned around Hans Andersen’s story of The Red Shoes for their seminal 1948 movie that really attracted me.
“The main message of The Red Shoes is that nothing matters but art. As Michael Powell said, “The Red Shoes told us to go and die for art.” Whilst acknowledging the exaggeration here, I believe it was a piece that asked us to take art seriously as a life-changing force: something that gives intense joy but also asks for and requires sacrifices.”
Bourne knows a thing or two about art, the pursuit of it and obsession.
He came to dance at the relatively late age of 22, but from there it became his lifetime’s purpose.
“In today’s culture there seems an obsession with what it takes to become a great performer or artist. In recent years, the most popular shows on television have been about finding someone with star quality (The X Factor) or watching someone acquire the skills and dedication to become a great dancer (Strictly Come Dancing). Katherine Hepburn was once asked what ‘star-quality’ was and she replied, “I don’t know, but I’ve got it.” It’s an indefinable thing but we seem fascinated by it. The Red Shoes gives us a glimpse into that world, an insight into the art form of dance, a revealing backstage story into the minds of artists and the creative life.” Bourne’s version of the Powell and Pressburger version of the Hans Christian Andersen story is deeply informed. The story is about a dancer and dance itself – as Bourne himself says ‘something that we at New Adventures know a thing or two about’.
“However, a dance company in 1948 was very different to dance company life today. When The Red Shoes was released in 1948, ballet was a relatively new and mysterious art form and the film was a genuine insight into a rare and extraordinary world of flamboyant personalities, glamorous women, fey men and obsessive, uptight creative figures with strange names and a range of international accents,” says Bourne.
“Most, if not all of this has changed, of course, but I did see a similarity between the life of a hard-working touring company, full of slightly eccentric personalities and the world of New Adventures today.”
Bradford Alhambra, April 21-25.