Viv Hardwick talks to Birmingham Royal Ballet artistic director David Bintley about his decision to bring Cyrano back for audiences on Wearside, just as Sleeping Beauty is ready to delight dance fans.

WEARSIDE has become a key touring destination for Birmingham Royal Ballet who bring a lavish version of Sleeping Beauty to Sunderland's Empire next week.

Artistic director David Bintley is currently busy choreographing a new version of his full-length ballet based on the story of Cyrano de Bergerac for the company's next visit even as he praises the venue's larger stage area.

"In terms of the North-East it's the best theatre there is because it can accommodate us in a way that few other theatres can, " he says.

Allegations from the national press about him wasting his talent on regional audiences rather than take on a London-based role provoke him into saying: "I can assure you I never have and never will rest on my laurels and my best work is in front of me.

"I' m creating a new full-length ballet next February called Cyrano. I did a version of it for the Royal Ballet in 1991 which wasn't entirely successful and among the problems was the fact that it didn't have a very good score.

"I wasn't able to do any work or remedy that because the composer died a few years ago. Despite efforts to resuscitate that score I realised that the best way forward was to ask Carl Davis to compose a new score, " he says of the two-year project.

Sunderland audiences will see Cyrano in March 2007 and Bintley offers little comfort to those who think the tale of the 17th century adventurer with the big nose can be updated. "You can't really do Cyrano as a contemporary production as they've found out at the National Theatre because it's a play written about a specific period.

Doing a play about a play in another period is just too complicated, " he explains.

As it is, Bintley has already committed BRB to the costs of Cyrano to ensure that Arts Council funding is available and "you don't end up at the mercy of the workshops because you haven't worked out the designs a year in advance".

His main concern at present is actually replacing a series of "great dancers" who have left the company.

Molly Smolen and Tilt Helimets, seen in BRB's tour of Romeo and Juliet last year, are among the departures. But Bintley points out that this just means the dance he choreographs will change to display the strength of new talent coming through.

He says: "We have young dancers coming through to replace the senior members who have left. Great dancers do have a shelf life and it has happened before that after a five year period you have five or six people leaving or retiring and creating a challenging situation.

"In the next five years we will have a new generation of young people in the cast. But it is not a situation of having dancers you can't replace, but doing something different."

BRB's Sleeping Beauty comes to Sunderland's Empire on March 2125. Box Office: 0870 602 1130 BRB's triple bill of Solitare, Brouillards and Pineapple Poll is staged at Durham's Gala Theatre on June 20 and 21. Box Office: 0191-332 4041. The company visits York's Theatre Royal on June 30 and July 1. Box Office: (01904) 623 568