Christopher Wheeldon's full-length ballet based on Lewis Carroll's book is an exuberant piece of storytelling featuring an instantly recognizable cast of characters, among them a tap-dancing Mad Hatter, a tetchy White Rabbit and a raucously bad-tempered Queen of Hearts. While regular ballet goers can appreciate nods to other famous works - there's a parody of the Rose Adagio from The Sleeping Beauty, for example, with jam tarts instead of flowers - the ballet is above all a brilliant, family friendly,…

Swan Lake, surely the greatest of all Romantic ballets, is the captivating story of a beautiful woman transformed into a swan, and a heart-rending tribute to the power of love. From the earliest days of the Vic-Wells Ballet, Swan Lake has been one of The Royal Ballet's signature works. In creating this production, Anthony Dowell aimed to return to an authentic version of the choreography created for the Mariinsky Theatre in 1895. The designs draw on the Russian Imperial Court…

Frederick Ashton's final full-length ballet is one of his most joyous creations, inspired by his love for the Suffolk countryside. La Fille displays some of Ashton's most virtuosic choreography - the youthful passion of Lise and her lover, Colas, is expressed in a series of energetic pas de deux. The ballet is laced with good humour and a whirl of dancing chickens, grouchy guardians and halfwit suitors take to the stage. Ashton affectionately incorporated elements of national folk dance into…

Immerse yourself in a world of “transcendent beauty and sumptuous intentions as well as dark and violent impulse” with Helgi Tomasson’s bravura interpretation of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet captured at the San Francisco Ballet. With its passionate choreography, spine-tingling swordsmanship, and celebrated score by Sergei Prokofiev, this passionate re-telling of Shakespeare’s heartbreaking tragedy is a signature production for the ballet company and an eternal favourite with audiences around the world. "Tomasson lifts Shakespeare’s complex and familiar language off the gilded…

Matthew Bourne’s smash-hit production was captured at the Bristol Hippodrome following the original sell-out UK tour. His haunting new scenario is a Gothic Romance that will delight dance fans of all ages. The story crosses the ages, beginning in 1890 at the christening of the heroine Princess Aurora during the Fin-de-Siecle period when fairies, vampires and decadent opulence fed the gothic imagination. As Aurora grows into a young woman, we move forward in time to the more rigid, uptight Edwardian…