After ‘dipping my toe’ in the world of new music with a small number of short works, Hobson was my first evening-length ballet with a fully commissioned score. I had seen David Lean’s wonderful film of Harold Brighouse’s play as a child and loved it, and when Peter Wright asked me for a new ballet I considered the dancers in the company, filled as it was at that time with a host of characterful artists, and my mind strayed to this most English of ‘Cinderella’ stories.

It was clear though that with such an involved narrative, and definitive period and location, it was unlikely that I would find existing music suitable for the work and I was guided to composer Paul Reade by our Music Director at that time, Barry Wordsworth, and his hunch couldn’t have been better.

The original commission from Peter had been for a one-act piece but as Paul and I worked, the ballet grew and grew to three acts, though the premiere took place in two, as Balanchine’s Theme and Variations had already been advertised as part of the programme!

I am often asked which of my ballets is my ‘favourite’, a question I can’t answer, but I’ve certainly never had a happier experience than during the making of Hobson, and that happiness is something which the work itself seems to convey to audiences.  De Valois once said to me that we must make ballets from our own native stories, and so the piece is dedicated, “For Madam, an English ballet”.

Olivier Award nomination 1990

'Bintley's most fully realised narrative work'
THE GUARDIAN

'Excellent'
THE SCOTSMAN

'Delightful, loveable comedy that's David Bintley's finest and most entertaining work'
THE ARTSDESK

'A warm and tender ballet that just radiates with David Bintley's mischievous sense of fun and his great love of British dance'
THE STAGE