Dance review: Northern Ballet Theatre

Published on Friday 12 March 2010 18:34

NORTHERN BALLET THEATRE – WUTHERING HEIGHTS **** EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE

FROM Emily Bront's original novel to Kate Bush's chart-topping single, and all the film versions in between, if there's one thing Wuthering Heights stands for, it's passion. So in many ways, dance is the perfect genre for this tragic love story, because you can fit a whole lot of longing into two hours of body language.

In the hands of a more technically-focused company, this ballet could easily fall flat. But Northern Ballet Theatre has always given equal weighting to acting and dancing, perhaps more here than ever before. Which isn't to say the technique's not there – it is, as evidenced in leap after high leap and some intricate pas de deux.

Layered on top of this, however, are some fine performances, turning Heathcliff and co into living, breathing three-dimensional characters. Occasionally, the line between believability and melodrama looks perilously close to being crossed, but invariably they pull back just in time.

Throughout, choreographer David Nixon perfectly captures the class division that separates Heathcliff and Edgar, with Cathy torn between her shabby but passionate life at Wuthering Heights and the opulence of Thrushcross Grange.

Aided by Claude-Michel Schnberg's rousing score, the moments of extreme love and frustrated hate between Cathy and Heathcliff are everything you could hope for. While the beautifully staged ending – with a lonely Heathcliff surrounded by the memory of the lovers' younger selves – may well leave you reaching for the tissues.