A brand new dance piece for a brand new home

It’s only the fact that I have driven past the West Yorkshire Playhouse to get to Northern Ballet that I know I’ve not taken a wrong turn and accidentally wandered into a theatre rehearsal rather than the dance rehearsal where I am supposed to be. That and the fact that the people around the room are wearing tights and ballet pumps and have the taut, long limbs of dancers. The person leading the company, however, addresses the performers less like a choreographer and more like a theatre director.

David Nixon wants the performers to understand the “back story” and motivation of the characters they will embody on stage. Nixon, the artistic director of Northern Ballet, is in the final week of rehearsing his first new ballet in three years. Cleopatra is taking shape and the dancers he is putting through their paces will play the epic and historical roles of Mark Antony, Caesar and, of course, the titular heroine. He constantly reminds the dancers that this ballet will be different to anything they have done before.

“Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, none of them have the epic sweep of these characters,” he enthusiastically tells them. “Juliet had her love for Romeo and that was very nice, Giselle just fell in love with the wrong guy,” he addresses the dancer playing the title role. “But Cleopatra seduced the most powerful men in the world, nations fought because of her, there is an emotional depth and weight to the life you are dancing on stage that you will not get in any other role in ballet.” Rehearsals over, Nixon talks about the production. I point out that he conducts his rehearsals like a theatre director.

“Well that’s what makes us different from other dance companies. I’m interested in the characters on stage because if the dancers get that right, if they understand the reason behind the movement, then the movement becomes more interesting. A lot of choreographers think the dancers are there to serve their ‘vision’ but that’s not what we do,” says Nixon.

“We had some board members watch an early rehearsal and afterwards one of them said that when I was demonstrating something to Martha (Leebolt, the acclaimed dancer taking on the eponymous role) I was more Cleopatra than she was, but that’s because I have lived with the idea so long and read so much that I understood, at the time, more fully Cleopatra’s journey. I understood who she was, all of which informs the movement.”

It is little surprise that Nixon was able to embody Cleopatra – he has lived with the idea of turning the Egyptian queen and great beauty into a ballet for over seven years, but has believed in the story as a ballet for much longer. “Stories in ballet tend not to be on epic, scales,” he says. “Her story was something I always believed could work as a dance.”

In 2002 Nixon created his first full length dance for Northern Ballet Theatre and the music for Wuthering Heights was composed by Claude-Michel Schönberg, the man behind the music of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon. The ballet was a triumph and the artistic partnership, both members felt, ought to be repeated. “I had already commissioned a scenario for Cleopatra by a German writer and gave it to Claude-Michel, but it wasn’t something he thought he could work on. When I looked at it again, I thought that maybe it wasn’t right for me either, so that was that.” Except it wasn’t. In 2009 Wuthering Heights was remounted with Schönberg writing new music for the piece. It was an even bigger hit than the previous production.

“We had to work on something together again and I said “well, there’s always Cleopatra”,” says Nixon. This time they did not work from the previous scenario, but created the music and story anew. “Claude-Michel rang me to say that he had something and I went over to listen to it and the music really moved me,” says Nixon. Once the choreographer heard the music, he could also see the shape of the ballet and began creating the piece last summer.

“It’s been a real challenge, but to get back into the studio and work with the dancers has been wonderful. It’s been three years – I miss it,” says Nixon. “I am really excited about showing the work to the audience.”

Unveiling the new ballet, at Leeds Grand Theatre tomorrow night, is a big moment for Northern Ballet, which changed its name from Northern Ballet Theatre when it moved into its new £12m building in Leeds’s cultural quarter at the end of last year. Nixon looks healthy and strong, having been in the dance studio himself, but managing the company, its move into a new building and creating a new ballet must have taken its toll?

“It’s why there hasn’t been a new ballet for three years – each new work is like five or six short pieces, and it is difficult,” admits Nixon.

“But we moved into a new building and it made sense for us to have a new work. It’s a way of us announcing ourselves to the audience and while it is a little nerve wracking, I’m just excited to be back.”

Cleopatra, Leeds Grand Theatre, Feb 26 to Mar 5. Hull New Theatre, Mar 16 to 19, Sheffield Lyceum, Mar 22 to 26, Sadler’s Wells, London, May 17 to 21.