On February 14th last year (pre-Covid) I was able to go and see the ballet, Swan Lake with some of my family for my bronze Arts Award. I really enjoyed watching the performance; I don’t see ballet that often, except for online, so it was a lot of fun to go down to Stirling and watch it live!

 We arrived in the evening, wandered around a bit trying to find the place; the theatre was soon found when we met up with my Grandma, who we had invited to join us in viewing the thrilling show. As we waited in the hall some of the ballet dancers were handing out programs whilst flocking about in their tutus leaving everybody they passed ooing and ahing. Most people bought a program but it doesn’t matter how tutu clad they were, we weren’t going to pay ten pounds for one ourselves. Our seats were quite near the front; I could even hear the pointe shoes scuffing on the stage as they danced! It was hard to believe that most of the ballet dancers were actually students, only the two main characters (Odette and Prince Siegfried,) being proper professionals, but you couldn’t tell from looking. I found it impressive how long the performers stayed in character, even the dancers at the side, who weren’t in the current dance, would look in character by pointing at things or making certain facial expressions. At the end of the show, I think when Rothbart had just died; all the swan dancers gathered around him and stayed on pointe all the way until the curtain fell!

It was a very good performance, especially since most of the Ballet dancers were students! I believe everyone should watch Swan Lake live at least once in their life; it really is a stunning ballet.