Readers will find darkness in many fairytales. But David Bintley's Beauty and the Beast, for the Birmingham Royal Ballet, is possibly the darkest ever performed. It was staged at National Centre for the Performing Arts from Tuesday to Thursday.

The lighting for the ballet was so dark that parts of the scenery were hardly discernible, while characters faded into the blackness like ghosts. But everything fits Bintley's narrative style, which is shrouded in gloom. "Darkness lurks at the heart of the fairytale. Children may like Walt Disney's version, but I think they also like to be frightened,"he said.

The 51-year-old choreographer read many versions of the fairytale and finally chose a classic French version. "This version depicts a lot of trivia. I like to tell my audience trivia,"Bintley said.

But he did not just recreate the written story on stage. He tried to present audiences with something new. So his Beauty and the Beast was more than just a tale about a pretty girl who falls in love with a cursed prince.

When he first read the story as a young boy, he did not feel there was good reason for the prince to be turned into a beast. "I never found it very convincing, so I tried to find a better reason for him to be turned into a beast," he said.

So he put a parallel story in which a fox was turned into a wild girl. "It is her journey back to being a fox and the beast's journey back to being a man," he said.

He focused on the descent of all humans into beastly behavior and how noble and attractive animals are. "My ideas for the choreography came from all kinds of animals," he said.

Bintley's choice of composer was a Canadian, Glenn Buhr. Buhr's music was thick with the story's gothic flavor and dramatic momentum.

Bintley was a student at the Royal Ballet School in the 1970s, where Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, noticed his skills. Valois respected his natural independence and, sensing that his was an exceptional talent, took him under her wing.

In 1976, he joined Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, now Birmingham Royal Ballet, and quickly proved an outstanding character dancer. He became the artistic director of the ballet in 1995.

As a former dancer, Bintley knows that when a dancer gets injured, it is difficult for him or her to recover. "A lot of dancers are dancing with injury and are in pain a lot of the time,"he said. So when he choreographs, he takes responsibility for dancers' injuries.

Despite a long and fulfilling career, there is no sense yet that Bintley is looking at retirement. "I've never given up anything except dancing and I did that because it physically hurt,"he said.