New Melbourne Season Announced For St Petersburg Ballet Theatre Production Of SWAN LAKE

Founded in 1994, The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is renowned globally not just for its beautiful Vaganova trained dancers but also for its stunning, grand, full-length productions. Led by prima ballerina Irina Kolesnikova, the company travels internationally complete with breathtaking scenery and magnificent costumes. The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre has in its repertoire such classical masterpieces as Giselle, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. The incredibly popular company is in such demand that it gives 200 performances every year.

First performed in St Petersburg in 1895, the immortal and enchanting Swan Lake, with its unrivalled "white acts", its spectacular and dramatic ballroom scene, sublime music and deeply moving story - is the ballet that towers above all others. Now, for the first time since the landmark 1951 National Theatre Ballet production, Swan Lake returns to the Princess Theatre with brilliant bravura dancing of the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre in a production that is everything you expect from Russian classical ballet.

Swan Lake tells the classic love story of Prince Siegfried and the Swan Princess Odette torn apart by the villainous sorcerer Rothbart in a story where true love conquers all.

The tour producer, Andrew Guild, who was first introduced to Russian ballet in 1969 and has decades of experience in presenting quality Russian ballet in Australia and around the world, said, "Without doubt, Swan Lake is the world's most famous classical ballet and no one dances it as beautifully as The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre. What's more, I can't think of a more beautiful theatre than the Princess to present this full length, lavish production. The brief season showcases Russian classical ballet on a grand scale. It's the real thing, superb Russian classical dancers, gorgeous Tchaikovsky music, magnificent sets and costumes all together in Melbourne's grandest theatre. I urge every ballet lover not to miss it. See it once, remember it forever."

The 60-member St Petersburg Ballet Theatre comes to Melbourne from sold out seasons in London and Paris and after hugely successful tours in Asia, Europe and South Africa.