29th Nov – 3rd Dec, The Lowry, Salford

Based on the Academy Award-winning film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and the much loved Hans Christian Andersen fairytale with music by Bernard Herrmann, New Adventures will bring their World Premiere of Matthew Bourne’s new production, The Red Shoes to Salford this November. The show will run at The Lowry from Tue 29 November to Saturday 3 December 2016.

Supported by Arts Council England, The Red Shoes has seduced audiences and inspired generations of dancers with its tale of obsession, possession and one girl’s dream to be the greatest dancer in the world. Victoria Page lives to dance but her ambitions become a battleground between the two men who inspire her passion.

Creating the coveted role of Victoria Page will be the Australian dancer and New Adventures Principal, Ashley Shaw. Ashley is currently wowing audiences in her breath-taking performance as Aurora in Matthew Bourne’s “Sleeping Beauty”. She has been dancing with New Adventures since 2009 performing many of the Company’s leading female roles including “Nutcracker!”, ‘Lana’ in “The Car Man”, ‘Kim’ in “Edward Scissorhands” and the title role in “Cinderella”. This will be her first created role in a new production.

Matthew Bourne said: “It has been a long held ambition of mine to bring “The Red Shoes” to the stage as a dance/drama. 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. 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. It has also long been an ambition of mine to bring the incomparable music of Bernard Herrmann to the stage. It has been fascinating to discover how much of this music lends itself to story-telling through dance and this production will, I believe, be the first full length ballet to celebrate his unique music.”

Matthew Bourne’s magical new adaptation of the legendary Powell and Pressburger film reunites him with his regular collaborators and New Adventures Associate Artists and the team that brought you the world wide hit, “Sleeping Beauty”; Lez Brotherston (set and costumes), Paule Constable (lighting) and Paul Groothuis (sound).

This World Premiere is set to a new score arranged by New Adventures Associate Artist, Terry Davies using the mesmerizing music of golden-age Hollywood composer, Bernard Herrmann (most famous for his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Martin Scorsese), whose work ranges from the witty and playfully robust to the achingly romantic and bittersweet.

An intoxicating drama where life imitates art with fateful consequences; The Red Shoes will dazzle your senses and break your heart.

Tue 29 Nov – Sat 3 Dec 2016

http://www.thelowry.com/event/the-red-shoes