It was Tchaikovsky, or rather his music, which first kindled my interest to classical ballet. Now I relish the art form and the way the characters represent their emotions with pirouettes, leaps and arm gestures.

This year Artsworld gave us a double treat with Tchaikovsky's first ballet, Swan Lake, and his second, The Sleeping Beauty.

They are ballets of great contrast. Swan Lake, a failure at first but now probably the most popular ballet in the repertoire, is a dark and rather disturbing tale of doomed love and death.

But for me it has the most dramatic music, infectious, very Russian and a wonderful mix of light and shade.

The Sleeping Beauty, based on the fairytale by Charles Perrault, is a happy-ending story where the music is much more closely linked to the dancing.

The dancers, all young and enthusiastic, were full of grace, each summing up their individual characters to perfection.

The two principals, Sabina Yapparova and Andrei Yakhnyuk were outstanding, reflecting their recent engagement.