Leeds-based Northern Ballet Theatre was founded with 10 dancers in 1969 and today it is one of Britain's most important companies, with director David Nixon continuing a strong tradition of narrative dance. Story ballets are unfashionable these days, but Nixon's combination of strong design, approachable music and emotive dance-drama has built the company a dedicated following.
Even his occasional failures - and a Sleeping Beauty set in outer space was perhaps an imaginative leap too far - have a certain panache and are fiercely defended by Northern Ballet Theatre's army of fans. British ballet is rooted in narrative and while many European companies have adopted a stripped-back, abstract style, dancers in British companies are expected to act and to act well.
The gusto with which NBT tackles Gillian Lynne's A Simple Man demonstrates that in the company's 40th anniversary season, the story-dance tradition is in good health. Now more than 20 years old, the work takes its inspiration from the paintings of LS Lowry, and unites Lynne's choreography with designs by Tim Goodchild and a Carl Davis score to create a moving and atmospheric portrait of the Manchester artist. Darren Goldsmith is particularly good as the guileless Lowry in his dingy suit and crammed-down hat, forever the wide-eyed spectator of his city's smoky panoramas and the anguished victim of his nightmarish, hypochondriac mother.
The piece follows As Time Goes By, a genial if slightly soporific saunter through half-a-dozen nightclub staples, and Angels in the Architecture, Mark Godden's exploration of Shaker culture set to Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. There is, as one might expect, much emphasis on the rewards of domesticity and brooms are much in evidence.
But did the sect's famous "shaking" dances really involve the women throwing their skirts over their heads and showing off their pants? Very odd.
