Mary Brennan

From foyer to backstage, the pre-performance buzz at Edinburgh's Festival Theatre proclaims Scottish Ballet's current revival of The Nutcracker is a palpable hit - and box-office returns confirm this. The last time audience figures reached this pitch, it was in 1996. The production? The late Peter Darrell's Nutcracker, when the original 1973 staging had its final outing. If bookings continue in this vein, then this Nutcracker will outstrip even its predecessor and Christopher Hampson's gut instinct to re-stage the Darrell ballet with new designs by Lez Brotherston will tick a whole lot of boxes, not just in terms of public appeal but in keeping faith with what he sees as Scottish Ballet's artistic heritage and legacy.

When he came into post as artistic director, in September 2012, Hampson spoke feelingly of the need to keep dancers and audiences alike actively connected to the vision, and the work, of Scottish Ballet's founder-choreographer Peter Darrell. Now, as he sits backstage, with the tannoy announcements chivvying the dancers to "check all Act One and Act Two costumes now, please" his thoughts are already busy with what's in store for audiences at home and abroad in the 2015/2016 seasons. "The legacy has to be about going forward," he says. "Everything that Darrell did, in giving Scotland its own national ballet company, was about breaking new ground and on building a company repertoire that had its own, distinctive character - even when it was one of the heritage classics. You only have to look at this Nutcracker, with all the children on-stage, to see how well he did that. For us, now, the challenge is to keep broadening out our repertoire, through new commissions and new acquisitions. We have both in the coming months, and for me that's how we really carry on not just my aims and ambitions for Scottish Ballet, but Darrell's too."

Once the Nutcracker tour ends, however, the company will be packing its bags and heading to China and Japan with Krzysztof Pastor's radical and provocatively up-dated version of Romeo and Juliet. In May, after a brief UK tour (that includes London), the company return to America with A Streetcar Named Desire. Hampson laughs, recalling how an earlier visit to New Orleans had them biting their nails in the wings. "I mean, it was coals to Newcastle, wasn't it? Here we are, a Scottish company and we're showing them how to stage what is their own classic narrative - and in dance! I think, for us, the response - they just went absolutely wild - was such an affirmation of our dancers, our house style, if you like. So we're going back to America, to venues that include the Kennedy Centre in Washington. And when that happens, it really brings home to everyone here how, as a company, we're cultural ambassadors for Scotland. We're bringing them a work that doesn't exist in anyone else's repertoire: it was made in Scotland, it's got Scottish Ballet's brand on it if you like - and it's world-class."

His voice, his facial expression, as he says this speak volumes. Hampson knows, not least because of his own globe-trotting career, that Scottish Ballet's yearly budget is small beer compared to many of America's regional companies. Wowing audiences, as they did in New Orleans, has a special kudos that lingers on for the dancers long after they're homeward bound.

"It sends them back into the studio with an appetite to push forward," he says. "They want those challenges that come through working in new ways and with new choreographers - and from autumn 2015 through to spring 2016, that's exactly what's on the cards! We've commissioned a piece from Bryan Arias, who is a very new talent - not just new to the UK, but to the wider international scene. He's a native of Puerto Rico, he's lived and trained in New York, so already there is this exciting mix of influences at work and we're bringing him in to the UK, first!" The other half of this autumn double bill is a new acquisition: Javier de Frutos's Elsa Canasta which he originally made for Rambert in 2002. It's set to songs by Cole Porter, features a live chanteuse and a totally diva-esque sweep of a staircase just made for swanning and posing on, before the music demands you face up to some very complex, clever dance.

"We've been describing Elsa Canasta as dark, sexy and funny - which is it is, but it's also truly and wonderfully theatrical. I've found myself thinking that Javier is probably more in the vein of Peter Darrell, because of how he mixes theatre, mixes song, mixes dance, and does it in a way that just comes naturally to him. It's pure showmanship, but with wonderful choreographic craftsmanship. And - having shared triple bills with Javier when I was working with other companies - I know how much of an impact he has on dancers. They go on a really provocative journey with him, they become like a Javier-club during rehearsals, and that has a lasting effect. They're ready for anything after that!"

What comes after that is Hampson's own version of Cinderella which he made for Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2007. "I don't want to give too much away," he smiles. "But it is very romantic - and I don't really do 'romantic' but this is a love story. It's as much about a mother's love reaching out from beyond the grave, as it is about the Prince falling in love with Cinderella. And there is a rose... and that's all I want to say, for now."

He will, however, enthuse about the commission that sees the award-winning choreographer David Dawson creating a new Swan Lake for Scottish Ballet in 2016. It transpires he and Dawson were at school together - that being the Royal Ballet School - and so, one chilly day when Hampson was walking his two greyhounds in Pollok Park, he phoned Dawson with an offer that, as he himself says "meant a very long walk for the dogs, and a very cold hand for me, but ended with an agreement that he should come over and see our dancers for himself. He's been with us in the studio since, and he's even made a couple of sequences which I've looked at - and they are exquisite. David always pushes the boundaries of classical ballet, simply because he loves classicism and wants to keep it fresh and bold as well as pure. When he was getting ready to head home he just turned to me and said "so I suppose we're doing it then?" and I couldn't be more excited. Again, for me, this is one of the hallmark's of Darrell's legacy - taking an iconic classic and making it speak to a modern audience." There's a slight pause. The Hampson says "I keep asking people who knew him, if Darrell would approve - if we would get on, actually. Because, for me, keeping this company going forward, meeting new challenges and reaching out to new audiences is the legacy he gave us and it's one I totally believe in."