David Behrens finds out about the latest production by the controversial Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Bradford didn't exactly bring out the bunting for David Bintley's last visit. There were indeed some on the Council who recommended him to take the first available bus back to Birmingham.

His controversial ballet, based on the life of the homosexual King Edward II, was considered too sordid and explicit for our sensitive Northern palates, and there were calls for it to be summarily banned from the Alhambra.

It wasn't, fortunately; and for those who saw it, the experience was unforgettable.

Next week, Bintley is back, triumphant and unrepentant, with what he calls a story of adultery, unwanted pregnancy, madness and murder.

"Please tell those detractors of ours that that's what we're bringing this time," he says of the Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of Far From the Madding Crowd.

"But of course it's by Thomas Hardy and it's a classic, so maybe that's OK."

Bintley, the Huddersfield-born artistic director of the BRB, was attracted to Hardy's novel by its central story: that of a struggling farm owner and the effect she has on the men in her life.

"Like Edward II, it's an English story and sheds light on English society at a particular time," he says. "It also sheds a lot of light on English character generally."

The reaction last time to Edward II neither surprised nor upset him, he says.

"It was a contentious subject and a difficult one; it wasn't a happy story.

"But we haven't had one single complaint from anybody who's ever seen the production; only from people who haven't seen it, and that really says it all."

For next week's residence, Bintley will present, in tandem with Far From the Madding Crowd, a triple bill of dance comprising Grosse Fuge, Elite Syncopations, and George Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements.

This three-pronged celebration of Seventies choreography represents part of BRB's Millennium Festival. Elite Syncopations, Kenneth MacMillan's 1971 ballet featuring the music of Scott Joplin, is a particular crowd-pleaser.

But while pleasing audiences here in Bradford is something at which Bintley is accomplished, getting the crowd through the door in the first place is more of a problem.

Because of vagaries in public funding and competition between companies, BRB finds itself fighting for local custom with the Northern Ballet Theatre and English National Ballet. The other companies perform regularly in Leeds and other nearby centres.

"But it's the same catchment area," says Bintley. "When I lived in Huddersfield I used to go and watch the ballet in Manchester, Bradford and Leeds. These days, a lot of people make the choice for one company or one venue.

"So one of the things we suffer in Bradford is quite often having to clash with these other companies.

"If the Arts Council could sort that out, we'd do even better."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.