A BALLERINA friend of mine once said ballet companies put on Swan Lake to put bums on seats.

Last night my bum was firmly connected to its seat for the best part of three hours while the English National took us through the machinations of the famous work, the music for which was brilliantly composed by Tchaikovsky.

Ballet lovers will adore this production. The costumes are wonderful, the sets lavish - probably the reason for three intervals - and the dancing stupendous.

On the down side, it was too long and drawn out - probably because of the intervals - and the auditorium was ridiculously hot and stuffy. Oh, and the traffic getting into Manchester was awful, so if you're going set off early!

Boris De Leeuw was elegant, graceful, charismatic and very athletic in the role of Prince Siegfried.

Anna Seidl as Odette/Odile is a tallish ballerina, which helped her to perform with exceptional grace and skill. She is also brimming with charisma.

I particularly liked Jester Yat Sen Chang, but the large company, particularly the cygnets and swans, appeared to perform flawlessly throughout.

Paul Lewis was also excellent as the villain Rothbart.

Conductor Patrick Flynn, solo violinist Donald Weekes, solo cellist Gary Stevens and the rest of the orchestra were justifiably rapturously applauded.

I am reliably informed that Jane Rumbold, who worked on the headdresses for this production was a milliner at Bolton's Octagon Theatre about 15 years ago. Nick Jackson

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