All ballet is an impossibly difficult art beyond the realms of normal human abilities.

But despite the exquisite dedication required to achieve the poise and skill of a ballerina, it seems expected that any professional ballet company can produce a beautiful, graceful and heart breaking performance of Swan Lake.

Moscow City Ballet’s production at the Theatre Royal Brighton did just that. The tutued dancers frolicked like a flock of swans just as they should and the male leads pranced, lifted and twirled them with pure power.

However, the principal dancers made this production stand far apart from the run of the mill perfectly good ballets on regular tour rotation of provincial theatres.

Most notably, prima ballerina Lilia Oryekhova’s performance as Queen Of The Swans Odette was outstanding. Her attention to the tiniest detail was sublime. With a slight twitch of the neck she transcended even the most perfectly honed body at the peak of her art and took on a truly avian quality.

Add to that the most extraordinary acting skill in her facial expressions, which projected her character’s tortured soul; leaving the audience enraptured, on the brink of tears, with their hearts in their mouths.