The Sleeping Beauty is the definitive classical ballet. It is a fairy story. It is a kaleidoscope of colour and a moral in black and white. It is an almost unbearable lightness of being, based in the pomp of pre-revolutionary Russia. It is Tchaikovsky’s long-arched and sensuous score for his ideal heroine, realised in the choreography of Marius Petipa.
It came to Worthing on Wednesday, danced by the Russian State Ballet in the Pavilion Theatre, transformed into gilt, gold and glitter.
A company of 40 dancers defied gravity with the smoothest and longest of lines, the fastest of fouettes and the swiftest and most silent of pointes. No earthbound sound disturbed the mystery of dance so supple and silent that it might have been floating.
No matter that the stage was small or the music recorded. For a few hours on the Worthing seafront, the audience was transported to a magical world of romance and beauty. Velvet cavaliers supported gossamer nymphs, lilac fairies waltzed and spun, wickedness, thorn hedges and knitting needles were banished and everyone lived happily ever after.
The Company, directed by Sudkva Valentina, is currently touring the UK. Catch them if you can.
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