A Spell Is Cast With Majestic Movements

English National Ballet's 2018 Spring/ Summer season brings with it a revival of The Sleeping Beauty, presented at London Coliseum.

It's a classical and beguiling fairytale ballet first created by influential choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan in 1987 for American Ballet Theatre. By 2005, when English National Ballet acquired the work, it had undergone further revision though still remains true to Marius Petipa's 1890 original, and includes the favoured Rose Adagio, as the dramatic highlight of Act One.

Grand costumes designed by Nicholas Georgiadis liven the delicately enchanting sets of Peter Farmer and the result is a visual masterclass accompanied sublimely by Tchaikovsky's revered score.

What is The Sleeping Beauty about?

A vengeful Fairy, Carabosse, curses Princess Aurora on her 16th birthday to certain death with just one prick of her finger on a spinning wheel. It is through the graces of the Lilac Fairy that the Princess is instead only afflicted to a century of sleep. And true to the classical fairytale format, only a Prince's love-laden kiss can awaken the beauty from the slumber spell.