James Leece is dancing with destiny as he brings Matthew Bourne's famous Highland Fling toNewcastle next week. But he tells Viv Hardwick he has his eyes on Bourne's next massive dance project Edward Scissorhands.

EXPERIENCED kilt-wearer James Leece is determined to make the most of his namesake James in a revival of Matthew Bourne's dance-drama Highland Fling, but he also has his eyes on the company's most ambitious project to date... putting Edward Scissorhands the movie on stage.

Leece grew up in Aberdeen, but went to the Royal Ballet School when he was 11 so his Scottish accent "was washed out of me".

His introduction to the kilt came as a boy when "we had the Gordon tartan at my school, but I also wore a kilt for weddings. Some of the other lads in the show have never worn a kilt before, but it's nothing for me.

"The sporran had to be slightly redesigned for dancing because it flaps around the lower regions when you're on stage... so you fix it to the kilt so it doesn't have a whiplash effect."

On Highland Fling's tour to Newcastle's Theatre Royal next week he says: "We've been up a couple of time for shows and we did well last year with the Nutcracker, but it's big dance show with a lot of comedy and some tragedy. It's something for everybody but there are layers that kids wouldn't read into that the adults would probably get."

The classic French ballet of La Sylphide has been re-set in Scotland and Leece plays the lead role of James, a drug addict who hallucinates and ends up jumping out of a window because he's become infatuated with the Sylph - a female airborne imaginary being.

"Kerry Biggin plays The Sylph who can metamorph into different things and I spend the second half trying to find her which leads to the tragic ending. James basically joins the Sylph world in the end," explains Leece who danced the roles of Gobstopper and Dr Dross in The Nutcracker which toured to Tyneside.

So how does Matthew Bourne rate with Leece as a choreographer?

"He's found a niche in the market and he can't really be compared to anyone else. He creates a dance-drama which requires a bit of acting and nobody else really does that, but he's pretty much the most successful choreographer on the planet. We've just been to Los Angeles for Christmas with the Nutcracker and we were in Japan early this year and we're going back with Highland Fling. So there's a massive demand for the company."

The strong male element involved in Bourne's work has found a fanatical following in the orient and "we've got a bunch of crazy Japanese fans to put it politely.

They know everything about you before you get there and a total stranger will say 'Hi James' at the stage door and they'll tell me which part I'm playing next week and ask how my knees are after my injury. And you start thinking 'how do you know all this?'. They even create websites about you, but you try to disassociate yourself from all that because you know it's not like that in this country. But it is strange being treated like a superstar in Japan... I just wish I was paid the same," he jokes.

For the record Leece has undergone surgery on his knee and feet in order "to keep mending myself for dance".

"This cast is a lot smaller than productions like Swan Lake, which this show directly inspired. Swan Lake followed this when Highland Fling was first down in 1994, people may think this tour is a copy of Swan Lake but it's the other way round.

"At the moment, I want to concentrate on Highland Fling which tours until June and then Matthew is going ahead with a stage version of the movie Edward Scissorhands starring Johnny Depp. Hopefully, I'll be involved in that as well and I'll be glad to be cast anywhere in it because it's such a big show."

Rehearsals for Edward are set to start in October and there are hopes that the production will become a Christmas show in this country or America.

The 1990 Tim Burton fairy tale film's original screenplay writer Caroline Thompson and music creator Danny Elfman are already busy with Matthew Bourne's most ambitious project so far.

Leece says: "It won't be entirely the same as the movie because there are things you can't do on stage and some changes will have to be made."

For those unfamiliar with the plot, Edward Scissorhands is the story of a young man created by an inventor who dies before finishing his work - leaving the man with scissors instead of hands. When an Avon lady discovers him in his castle, she tries to bring him into her home, but the community becomes involved and Edward's hands cause havoc.

* Highland Fling runs at Newcastle Theatre Royal, Tuesday-Saturday. Box Office: 0870 905 5060.

Published: 31/03/2005