Passionate pas de deux moments are set to tantalise dance fans when Northern Ballet brings its powerful retelling of one the most popular love stories ever written to Milton Keynes Theatre’s stage from Tuesday (April 28).
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights tells the tale of the stormy relationship between Cathy Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff.
There is a fine line between love and hate and this masterpiece is all about the intense interplay between these two infatuated characters.
Inseparable as children running free on the moors, their innocent bond deepens into an overwhelming, obsessive, love affair.
Adulthood propels them in different directions but a chance encounter soon sees their compulsive connection become a devastating force.
There have been 10 film and television adaptations of Wuthering Heights and its enduring appeal makes it an ideal yarn for Northern Ballet’s dynamic dancer-actors to bring to life.
The company aims to engage, involve and move audiences through accomplished storytelling and inventive dance which retains the classical technique.
Its annual visit to Milton Keynes Theatre is always much-anticipated by dedicated dance fans and newer converts alike.
Wuthering Heights was the first production Artistic Director David Nixon OBE choreographed for Northern Ballet not long after he joined the company in 2001.
Premiered in 2002, Wuthering Heights was also renowned composer and librettist Claude-Michel Schönberg’s first ever ballet score.
Best known for writing the music for the West End and Broadway hits Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre, Schönberg’s collaboration with Nixon was followed by a further alliance in 2011 when he created the score for Northern Ballet’s Cleopatra.
Northern Ballet’s Wuthering Heights represents a true love story within a love story. During rehearsals for the original production in 2002, then Northern Ballet principal artist Charlotte Talbot - who helped to create the role of Cathy – met and fell in love with Schönberg. They got married in 2003.
Wuthering Heights is a bleakly beautiful classic. Headstrong Cathy and rugged Heathcliff find that their lives are inexorably linked forever in the darkly haunting tale.
Expect to be swept away as dance, music and drama combine to capture the spirit of these iconic characters.
Georgina Butler
http://georginabutler.wordpress.com
@GeorginaLButler
Northern Ballet’s Wuthering Heights runs at Milton Keynes Theatre from Tuesday April 28 until Saturday May 2.
Call the Box Office on 0844 871 7652 or visit www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes to book.
