IN THIRTY years, doyen of dandy dance Matthew Bourne had never brought his company to York. It was nothing personal, nothing against York, and all that, but his early shows went elsewhere and then they grew too big.

Now, however, Sir Matthew his added mid-scale touring to his repertoire, and so while Bradford Alhambra had Bourne’s The Red Shoes, York was more than delighted to have two nights of his Early Adventures.

Originally choreographed on his own body, he reactivated works from 1989 and 1991 with a company expanded from six to nine since then, plus fabulous new costume designs by constant compadre Lez Brotherston and all the visual wit, quirkiness, fragrant nostalgia, panache, once risque fruitiness, delicious comedy and shards of sadness that have given the Bourne identity to his divine choreography ever since.

These brief encounters with childhood memoir Watch With Mother, the ever-so-English Town And Country and uncomfortably English eye on all things gloriously Parisian in The Infernal Galop were topped off by a fascinating Q and A with maestro Matthew himself. Oh, and hot news, the Theatre Royal already has booked the next tour, Matthew Bourne’s Deadly Serious.