Irina Kolesnikova filled the sold out Royal Albert Hall with her engaging charm and balletic technique as Clara in a traditional version of the seasonal classic. For over a decade Konstantin Tachkin has built up his St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre into a company that gives high quality performances of the classics and the promoter has also made a commitment to the UK dance scene by sponsoring a UK run dance prize.


This production has richly coloured sumptuous costumes in a well lit set which conveys the magical environment for the dancers to perform to their own orchestra playing the Tchaikovsky score under the accomplished baton of Aleksander Kantorov.


Their principal ballerina Irina Kolesnikova has been delighting UK audiences for some years with her mixture of strong technique and appealing artistry but St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is not rent a corps. Many talented new dancers from Russia have joined the company this year joining such accomplished artists as Dmitry Akulinin the elegant Nutcracker Prince and Anastasia Khabarova who gloriously danced the Snow Queen with well rehearsed dancers as the snowflakes. Olga Shinkar gave a sensual Eastern dance while the dolls in the first Act including Vladimir Ippolitov, one of the new members of the company thrilled.


For all the posturing and snobbery about ballet by some British dance organisations and writers who have never done a days work in a dance studio we don’t yet have a company composed of entirely British dancers which could equal this unsubsidised Russian company - don’t miss them.