I think it requires a bit of honesty, Swan Lake.

SDC has a great reputation for putting live music on stage.

I look at the dancers and I get the inspiration for the work from them.

Mostly, I'm in the very enviable position that no one dictates what I do.

For me it was really important to get the essence out of the music for the story and not, sort of, press the music into the service of the whimsical telling of it.

It's the emotional trigger points that are important to me because I know if I could believe in the characters and try and imagine how they felt then I'd be able to do something quite honest.

Some are less giving, others are more reticent and you actually have to create for them. Others have within them the next step.