One of the most popular of all operas is Bizet's Carmen. The story of a gypsy who seduces a soldier, Don Jose, then leaves him for the toreador Escamilo with tragic consequences has inspired many adaptations. Among them is Rodion Shchedrin's 1967 Carmen Suite, an arrangement of highlights from the score for strings and percussion as the score of a ballet.

Queensland's Expressions Dance Company is bringing its stripped-back modern dance production of Shchedrin, titled Carmen Sweet, to the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. It features six dancers and is choreographed by Natalie Weir.

Jack Ziesing, who grew up in Canberra, plays the soldier. He says this production, with which he has been performing since it began in Brisbane in 2012, emphasises "the psychology of the character of Carmen and the different compartments of her mind".

Weir has divided the role among three dancers who play Carmen's various psychological states, he says.

"Elise May, who is also from Canberra, plays the more insightful and mature of the three Carmens, who's more aware of what's going on. Rebecca Hall is the more flirtatious, fiery, aggressive version of the character. And Michelle Barnett is the one who knows what she's doing but can still be naive and carefree about what's going on."

The gypsy element is prominent in this version with Daryl Brandwood as a fortune teller who predicts Carmen's grim fate, And Ziesing says his character is darker in this version than he is often portrayed.

"He's soul-searching, there's a conflict in him between a very moral, upstanding man and someone who's searching for something."

When he falls in love with Carmen, she corrupts his beliefs and ultimately brings him down when she dumps him for the Toreador, played by Benjamin Chapman.

"He's everything the soldier isn't – he's much more exciting ...the soldier is regarded as more on the boring side."

While the story is basically the same as that of the opera, it's missing some familiar elements – there's no Micaela to provide an alternative love interest for Don Jose, for example – and it's very much a contemporary rather than a classical dance piece, a bit more abstract than ballet, Ziesing says, though the story comes through.

Ziesing, 25, was born in the old Canberra Hospital and began dancing when he was about 12. He says he had no interest in dance before that, being more interested in basketball.

"My mum took me to a production at the Playhouse by Quantum Leap, now QL2, and I was quite amazed. My opinions and ideas of what dance was were challenged by the show."

It was a lot more physical and contemporary and even humorous than he had expected when he was, in his words, "dragged along" and his mother suggested he try out for it. He auditioned the following year, was accepted, and spent seven years with Quantum Leap.

"It was a wonderful experience," he says.

"I wouldn't be where I am without them."

From there, he went on to study dance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, graduating in 2010 and after graduating went to work for Expressions Dance Company, where he's remained ever since.

He and May last came to the Canberra region with the company in 2013 with a production based on Romeo and Juliet.

For now, he says, he is happy working at Expressions though he would like to start creating his own dance works. But he's not discouraged from self-expression.

"Natalie is very much a director rather than a choreographer," he says. She gives the dancers ideas and lets them choreograph their movements which she then shapes.

"We get a lot of choreographic input into the work we make."