Listen now to Northern Ballet on Radio 4's PM programme

Yesterday's PM programme on Radio 4 featured a piece about narrative ballet, Northern Ballet's new production of Cleopatra and the Royal Ballet's first new full-length work in 20 years, Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The report talks about the importance, and difficulty, in creating a full-length narrative ballet, something which Northern Ballet takes great pride in achieving.

David Nixon goes on to explain why narrative ballet is so demanding for a performer.

Narrative work asks more of you. For example, Cleopatra is a queen but she's not just a queen, she's a god, she's a politician, she's a mother; she has grief, she has sorrow, she has loss. And as as a performer when you go through all of that journey in one night that has to make you find another level of yourself.

David Nixon OBE, Artistic Director of Northern Ballet

You can listen to the programme on the BBC iPlayer until 21 February, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yjvxb.