Carmen hotfoots it into the 90s

Carmen Edinburgh Festival Theatre While the debate rages over whether the future for ballet lies in updating the classics or preserving them, some companies just drive on, proving there's no need for such an all-or-nothing choice. Northern Ballet Theatre have brought three productions to Scotland this year, and Carmen is surely the best of them.

Their modern take transplanted the action to the industrial side of Rio de Janeiro, a world of muggings and mobile phones where the cast revel in bare feet and streetwise footwear. The choreography of Didy Veldman was dropped into this revised scenario with wonderful lightness, moving the story along briskly and almost never just padding out glorious music.

Jose and his fiancee Micaela shared a searing duet of failed reconciliation contrasted with the sultry bed scene of Jose and Carmen, where she slid languidly down the incline of his back and swung off the footboard. This company of talented actor-dancers dragged the audience through an emotional minefield, leaving them battered and breathless. Don Morris

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