Double Olivier award-winning ballet The Red Shoes returns to Lowry, Salford on its 10th anniversary tour, which includes 11 of the original cast.
The fairytale show, which tells of one girl’s dream to be the greatest dancer in the world, is based on the Academy award-winning film of the same name by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
This is the first time New Adventure’s magical dance version has toured since its 2020 tour was cut short due to the pandemic. Choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne talks to Quays Life about the story’s timeless appeal and the challenges of bringing it to the stage.
What is it about ‘The Red Shoes’ that attracted you as a story to adapt for dance?
Matthew Bourne: “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.
“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!
“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”.
What are the main themes of the story?
Matthew Bourne: “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”.
How does it speak to the audience of today?
Matthew Bourne: “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 aquire 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”.
What are the differences between a dance company in 1948 and today?
Matthew Bourne: “The Red Shoes is a story about dance and dancers, something that we in 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! 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. I don’t think a contemporary ballet company today would necessarily create the right atmosphere to re-create the company we see in the 1948 film. The family atmosphere of New Adventures with its group of talented, highly individual performers, who tour around the UK and the world as a tight knit community, seemed the right company to recreate the fictional Lermontov company of yesteryear”.
The performances and personalities in the famous film are legendary. How have the New Adventures dancers approached playing these characters?
Matthew Bourne: “Who can imagine The Red Shoes without Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Leonide Massine and perhaps, most of all, Anton Walbrook? This is something that we have all had to contemplate and boldly address. I think the New Adventures dancers, whether they knew the film before or not, have all fallen in love with these unique performers. Our task had been, I think, to honour them with the odd little ‘tribute’ but then to create our own characters as dictated by the story we are telling. Trying to recreate ‘special’ performers or performances is always a mistake and I’ve encouraged the dancers to find their own way. That has not stopped us though from all delving into countless biographies and YouTube clips to look for inspiration into the flavour of the period in which we are working and to gather anecdotes about dancers and dancing in the 1940s and 50s. All our ensemble dancers were given a famous dancer of this era to study and the clues are in their given names in the programme!”
You have chosen the music of celebrated Hollywood composer, Bernard Herrmann rather than the original Oscar-winning score from the film. Why?
Matthew Bourne: “I have a great affection for Brian Easdale’s very fine score for The Red Shoes Ballet in the film. It’s an impressive achievement by any standards and a first for a mainstream film to include an unheard of 15-minute ballet as its central story-telling device.
“A feature film that includes a featured ballet is very different from a full-length wordless dance piece in which the music has to not only serve the ballets that the company perform, but also the backstage life of the company and, most importantly, the emotional story of Vicky Page, Julian Craster and Boris Lermontov. I found this variety of ideas in the work of one of my favourite Hollywood composers, Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann is probably most famous for his work with Alfred Hitchcock but Terry Davies (who has brilliantly arranged the music) and I decided to concentrate on the pre-Hitchcock music and have uncovered some real gems.
“I’m very proud to be presenting much of this music in the theatre for the first time. There is so much to enjoy musically here; I think it is one of the revelations of this piece”.
Design always plays such a big part in New Adventures productions. What were the challenges on this project?
Matthew Bourne: “My Associate Designer, Lez Brotherston, took on another enormous challenge with this production. Firstly, to create an adaptable theatrical space depicting both on-stage and backstage, as well as and a range of locations from Covent Garden to Monte Carlo, but also to allow for those flights of fancy that take us out of the literal theatrical world and into the sensuous and surreal world of artistic endeavour. For this Lez and I also rely heavily on the brilliance of our lighting designer, Paule Constable who always manages to surprise and thrill me with her own vision of what we are all trying to achieve”.
Do you relate personally to any of the characters in the story?
Matthew Bourne: “Perhaps not surprisingly I have found myself agreeing with much of what Lermontov says in the movie. I am nothing like him, of course, and I do acknowledge that some of his views are a little extreme today, but I do understand his particular kind of love for Vicky and his love of his company and dance in general. Nothing else seems as important to him. As I get older, I recognise that sentiment more and more”.
Matthew Bourne’s production of The Red Shoes is at Lowry, Salford from 25-29 November 2025. Recommended age 7+