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Michael Nunn and William Trevitt were already working 12 hour days when I met them 5 weeks before the opening of George Piper Dances' London debut at the Roundhouse - and that was while their dancers were still on holiday. We talked in a coffee shop near their Harley Street offices: the smart address is, surprisingly, the cheapest accommodation they could find in central London.

Let's start by talking about the future. Can you explain what you want to achieve in starting a new company?

WT: First of all we want to do work we're really interested in doing; then we want to apppeal to a wider audince than dance normally gets - not by making it too commercial, by by having a really good, accessible product. I think with classical dance, people are afraid it's going to be too snobby, not something they would enjoy, and we want to correct that.

Do you think people will come in order to see the dance, or to see the Ballet Boyz?

WT: I think our having been on television has already broken down some barriers - we're not seen as precious, we're just ordinary people doing an unusual job. So people may come to see us rather than someone else: peopl feel like they know you when you've been on television!

MN: And we're doing some collaborations, as well - we're trying to crossover into other forms of art. For instance we've been talking with video artists and hope to be doing some work with them next year, which is very exciting for us. we're talking to different sorts of marketing people and promoters, away from the normal dance background.

Could you say something about the sort of work you'd like to do, and the choreographers you'd be interested in working with? Michael Clark, for instance?

WT: One of the reasons we left K Ballet was that the work was going towards things we weren't interested in doing. For example, during our time at the Royal Ballet we'd danced Symphonic Variations and Rhapsody - fantastic ballets, dreadful to be in but wonderful to watch - but in our relatively short careers, fifteen years, twenty if you're lucky, you don't necessarily want to go back and do those same ballets again when there are other things you haven't tried. And K Ballet was going in the direction of repeating things we'd already done.

We've worked with Michael Clark before, actually: as soon as we left the Royal Ballet we did some stuff for his TV programme, The Late Michal Clark. He's very busy at the moment but I imagine we'll work with him at some point.

all photographs courtesy of GPD

MN: We certainly really like working with him - he's very together, he's doing some fantastic work - he's a genius, really.

WT: We're hoping to work with Russel Maliphant again, because we really enjoyed that and we hope he'll create a piece on us; and also Charles Linehan. And we're hoping to build up relationships with people like Jiri Kylian. We really enjoyed doing Steptext and William Forsythe was incredibly encouraging, and generous with his time, and again it's a question of building up a relationship.

What about the choreographers who are becoming known through working with the Royal Ballet - people like Cathy Marston?

WT: They are possibilities, but in the beginning we wan't to avoid the appearance that we just hadn't been able to drag ourselves away from the Royal Ballet. We don't want to look like Dance Bites. It would be good to be associated with the Royal Ballet, but I think we need a bit of space before that happens.

Will your company be ballet-based? What sort of dancers are you hiring?

WT: I think it's inevitable, because we're ballet trained, there will always be a ballet base, but we're thoroughly enjoying exploring other forms.

MN: For instance, we're working with Charles Linehan, who doesn't use that much of the classical vocabulary, but because we're highly trained in that discipline he can use that in his work,and he enjoys that. He's not creating work with ballet steps, but he likes the way we move and the way we move through certain positions. There's hardly any strict ballet in it but we need the technique to do the work.

WT: We've hired a mix of dancers. They are all capable ballet dancers, but some would call themselves contemporary rather than ballet dancers. We've hired the same group up till the end of our run of performances in December, then hopefully we'll be going into a new rehearsal period for the Spring tour, and whether we'll need all those dancers, or maybe need more, I don't know. There are seven of us at the moment; I think it would be nice to be able to afford to have ten as a permanent base, and then just to bring extra people in for a larger production.

What have you planned after the autumn tour?

WT: We're getting bookings now for a spring tour in the UK, but we're also at the early stages of getting interest from Europe. We'd really like to go back to Japan - we've had lots of messages from dance lovers asking when we're going back, so there's definitely a market there. If you're a dance fan, there's really nowhere better to be than Japan - they see everything, all the big classical companies, you can see high-quality dance every day of the year.

MN: Smaller companies too - Maurice Bejart is there a lot - and lots of galas too.

Looking five years on, how do you imagine George Piper Dances?

WT: We don't want to be on the road 12 months a year. Because we were very aware at the Royal Ballet that choreographers needed more time than the Royal Ballet was prepared to give them - that's why there weren't as many new works as we'd have liked - we've set up to take our company to the choreographers rather than the other way round. That way we can work to their schedule, and that's how I'd like to see us in five years time: groups of dancers going off to Germany or wherever and coming back with a new work. The choreographers seem to like that, and it's not necessarily more expensive.

MN: We're looking at exhibitions and other new things as well, for instance at making a dance film next year - we've just started talking to Channel 4 about that. Channel 4 were very happy with the Ballet Boyz. They like our style and our product. Usually anything with 'ballet' in the title doesn't do very well, and we were up against Coronation Street and things like that, but the viewing figures were very good, and the last programme had far more people watching than the Nutcracker a day or two before.

WT: People keep reminding us that's probably far more people than ever saw us at the Royal Ballet.

Going back into history a bit: you applied for the Directorship of the Royal Ballet - what would you have done if you'd actually got it?

MN: Well...lots of things...reviewed the repertoire choice, had a close look at the marketing and advertising departments, looked at ticket pricing, the scale of productions...

WT: We might have done the same thing as we're doing now - split the company up more, have small groups going to work with other companies, more collaborations...

all photographs courtesy of GPD

MN: I think I'd increase partnerships as well: audiences like it, they like to see how couples develop, and they thing "I liked them in Swan Lake, maybe I'll go and see how they get on in Manon". I think there's maybe been a certain resistance to that over the last few years, but maybe that will change now that Ross is there.

If you hadn't left to join K Company, would you still be with the Royal Ballet today?

Both together: No.

WT: I think we were getting towards the stage where we'd done everything we were likely to do, and then there's a danger of stagnating. And you end up doing less work rather than more: when you're building your way up through the company you're in everything, on every night, working really hard; but by the time you make it to Principal, you're doing two, four, maybe six shows a month, and that's not what I want.

MN: I can't imagine retiring, and just saying "I worked for the Royal Ballet". It's fantastic, but it's not enough.

Would you go back?

WT: As a full time member? No.

MN: To help out short-term, yes. After all we've got an audience there - and we've never danced in the new theatre.

If you knew what you know now about what it was going to be like, would you still have joined K Company?

WT: Yes. It taught us an important amount. We knew at the time it was a risk, but it did have enormous potential - good funding, good dancers, a captive audience - you can't ask for much more than that.

MN: We would never have been brave enough to do what we're doing now.

And why have you chosen to open at the Roundhouse?

WT: Being new, we don't want to be pigeonholed. Where you open says a lot about a company, and who knows what the Roundhouse says?

MN: It's a fantastic space too - awesome!

WT: It holds as many as you want. When you hire it, you get a three-pin plug and that's all. Everything else - seats, sound, bar, lighting, ushers - we have to do ourselves. We don't want people to feel they're coming into church or something, or that they don't know the etiquette - we just want them to come and have a good time and the Roundhouse seems a good place for that.

George Piper Dances is at the Roundhouse, London, from 15th to 20th October. Booking on 020 7494 5386