"The Red Shoes" by Matthew Bourne's New Adventures.

Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Everybody should know that Matthew Bourne is the king of modern ballet choreography. This is his adaptation is of the Academy award winning Powell & Pressburger’s 1948 film of the same name and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale. It’s about a girl, Vicky Page, who lives to dance, and the two men who inspire that passion within. It's about passion. It's about dancing. It's about control. It's about obsession. What more could you want from ballet?

Vicky hopes to impress Boris Lermontov, the poker-faced director of an innovative ballet company, and she manages to attract his attention. He’s impressed and invites her, as well as a moody young composer, Julian Craster, to join his company. The pair’s talents flourish under his guidance and then romance rears its head for Craster and Page and that's where the problems start.

The set and costumes are designed by Lez Brotherston. The set is cleverly designed utilising a large stage within a stage where the curtains can revolve allowing you to see both sides of the stage. it also acts as a split section allowing the stage crew to change one side of the scenery while the other half is being used. With a smooth rotation of the curtains we can then move to the other half.

We visit the ballet stage, the beach at Monte Carlo, A sleazy music hall and we even get a steam train in there as well. There are brilliant blasts of cinematic scenes, moving to monochrome sets that create that old time movie feel and introduces even more drama to the story.

The costumes, as only to be expected from Sir Matthew's ballets are eye-catching, exciting and blending the contemporary with the outlandish. Visually a treat for all. There's a lovely red and purple pin stripe suit matched with black shirt and vivid red tie that immediately pops out at you, and would look great in my wardrobe.

Paule Constable has designed the lighting. It changes from stark to Hollywood glamour, from brilliant sunshine on the beach to dark eerie castle gloominess and from cavalcades of colour to stark black and white.

The gorgeous, rich and romantic sound is the responsibility of the New Adventures Orchestra. sweeping strings transport you to a far away place and then bring you back to the darker side of the ballet with just a staccato exchange. 

Paul Groothius designs the soundscape. He makes you feel like you're sitting by the Monte Carlo beach with a gentle sound of the waves washing over you, then later creating the sound imagery of an approaching train.

The music itself is orchestrated by Terry Davies using the magical music of Hollywood composer, Bernard Herrmann, who has worked on scores for Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles among other legends.

Helping you locate the various scenes and places, there was a lovely fun and atmospheric projection design by Duncan McLean.

Matthew Bourne combines several dance styles in his ballets, from Latin American, ballroom, lindy hop via contemporary and also includes a wonderful comedy Wilson and Keppell sand dance routine. And comedy is one thing that Mr Bourne loves to inject into his work and there's loads of humour in this one. Just watch the dancers physicality, as well as their musicality, and even just a shrug or a raised eyebrow can relate comedy here. But this ballet also has a darker underbelly as well.

I'm not going to spout loads of wonderful things individually because the whole cast and ensemble are the best of the best; they wouldn't be in New Adventures if they weren't, but here's who played who....

Andy Monoghan (Boris Lermontov - Ballet Impresario), Cordelia Braithwaite (Victoria Page), Dominic North (Julian Craster), Katrina Lyndon (Irina Boranskaya - Prima Ballerina), Will Bozier (Ivan Boleslawsky - Premier Danseur), Glenn Graham (Grischa Ljubov - Ballet Master, Choreographer and Character Artist), Rosanna Lindsey (Nadia), Shakiera Ward (Svetlana), Daisy West (Beryl), Isabella Chandler (Pamela), Jarrod McWilliams (Mikhail), Matthew Potulski (Anton), Kingston Taylor (Serge), Thomas Ireson (Frederic), Molly Shaw-Downie (Lady Neston, Joyce and Edith), Tom Barnes Standing (Sergei Ratov) and Mark Austin (Dimitri).

I don't know much about ballet but I know when I have been entertained of an evening, and I was royally entertained, as I always am when a Matthew Bourne show is in town. I don't know about anyone else but I just find it so relaxing to watch these dancers glide over the stage and the music to wash over me, transporting you to a completely other world. 

The dancers are masters of their craft, athletes who train harder than most sport stars, and get to perform this magical choreography for our entertainment. If you've never been to a ballet before, let this be your introduction to a most wonderful and disciplines dance form, and if you've been a ballet fan for a while, but not seen this production, go on treat yourself!

Matthew Bourne's New Adventures "The Red Shoes" is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 7 February.