West Australian Ballet presents a story you love, but perhaps not as you know it.

It’s a tale as old as time, but curiously, unlike the vast number of other children’s fables brought to life on stage through the artistry of narrative ballet, this particular story is a relative newcomer to the art form. It is, however, a story that most people know and love nowadays, thanks to Disney’s popular 1991 animated film: Beauty and the Beast.

Just a handful of choreographers have interpreted this 18th-century French fairy tale by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve through ballet, but not one of these productions has made it to Australian shores, until now. West Australian Ballet will have the honour of being the first company to bring an en pointe Beauty and the Beast Down Under, and this particular staging is one of the finest on offer, created by Canadian choreographer David Nixon for the UK’s Northern Ballet in 2011.

“David is such a talented storyteller,” West Australian Ballet artistic director Aurelien Scannella explains. “This is a modern ballet, of course, because it’s only a few years old and it has a very contemporary feel, but the language of the choreography is a beautiful,...