The Sleeping Beauty
by ALLEN ROBERTSON for the Times
published: January 5, 2007

If you have never seen it before you are likely to be justifiably thrilled by most of what is on view. The dancing is robust, many of the tutus are gorgeous and the Kiev Classical Ballet Orchestra is happily at home with Tchaikovsky’s sonorous score. Full marks to the conductor Aleksei Baklan.

But the truth is that a company of only 32 dancers is not sufficient to populate this grandiloquent work of art. The background (to say nothing of the wanly painted pastel backdrops) appears woefully underfed.