As Noriko Ohara, the newly appointed artistic director of the National Ballet of Japan put it during a recent interview with The Japan Times: " 'The Sleeping Beauty' should be a spectacle — it should be gorgeous and dramatic."
Our conversation, animated with Ohara's frequent laughter, ranged from the differences between Scots and the English to her love of nature and open space (and the Victorian flat in Glasgow she shares with her husband and two cats in the off season) — and why her successful career overseas was "not really about success but more about survival."
As Ohara only took over from Englishman David Bintley in September, the company enters its new era by staging a fresh contemporary take on "The Sleeping Beauty," the classic Marius Petipa tale of pricked Princess Aurora waiting 100 years for the magical kiss of her Prince Desire that has, with Tchaikovsky's music, captivated audiences since its premiere in 1890. It was also the NNTT's first-ever production back in 1997.