Bourne again | 3 January 2013

While most theatres brace themselves for the annual invasion of prancing Nutcrackers and flying snowmen, Sadler’s Wells offers something that is mercifully not as sugary. Never-ending love and magic kisses might be at the core of Matthew Bourne’s long-awaited take on Sleeping Beauty — aptly subtitled ‘ A Gothic Romance’ — but there are also bites of the Twilight saga genre, demonic creatures and a fair amount of gender-bending. Odd as it may sound, it all works to absolute perfection, contrary to what some Jurassic highbrows might like to think.

Of the Tchaikovsky ballet trilogy, it’s true that Beauty is the one that never lent itself to any memorable revisitation, even though some of the greatest dance-makers — John Neumeier, Roland Petit, Mats Ek and Christophe Maillot — have had a go. Unlike Swan Lake and Nutcracker, which offer endless readings of their multilayered plots, Beauty remains what it was originally intended as: a splendid example of late 19th-century court ballet, celebrating the splendour of a fading absolutist state.