Anna Karenina

In a claustrophobic Venice of lavish dress and gilded interiors, Casanova is preparing for a career in holy orders when an erotic encounter sets him on a different path. Performed by the Northern Ballet live at the Palace Theatre, Manchester.

La Fille Mal Gardée (The Wayward Daughter) is a highly acclaimed comedy ballet that appeals to audiences of all generations. Some of the finest dancers have appeared in this work by Sir Frederick Ashton, which has been staged at theatres around the world, including at the Paris Opera, Bolshoi Theatre, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet and National Ballet of Canada. Audiences are captivated by the storyline: will the wild young Lise fight for her love despite her desperately overprotective mother? Will she marry her beloved Colas? Or will she listen to her mother’s words and accept Alain, who is wealthy but a little bit “out of his head”? This ballet celebrates the joy of life and, above all, love. It is colourful and full of humour, with dancers who simply make audiences smile.

On Christmas Eve, a young girl has a dream... Emotional awakening, physical transformation, childhood that slowly merges into adulthood... behind what seems to be a tale for children slowly emerges a danced initiatory journey. And while children revel in Drosselmeyer's magic tricks and enjoy a good scare with the apparition of the Mouse King, the adults notice all the finesse that pervades this narrative and admire the virtuosity of the choreography.

Sergei Prokofiev's eighth and last ballet, written between 1948 and 1953. It is based on the Russian Ural folk tale The Stone Flower by Pavel Bazhov and is also the last of the trilogy of ballets Prokofiev wrote in the Russian ballet tradition. It was premiered posthumously in 1954, conducted by Yuri Fayer.

Filmed on the stage of London's Covent Garden. Includes extracts from Swan lake, Ondine & The Firebird.

In 1931 Shostakovich wrote a full-length score for the Leningrad Music Hall, for a show that involved many of the leading entertainers of the day, as well as dancing girls, a jazz band, a dancing dog, sequences of silent film, simulated air-raids and gas attacks, a lorry, a storm, waiters and waitresses in a luxury restaurant, river nymphs and even a scene in Heaven with the Devil, the Twelve Apostles, the Archangel Gabriel and all the other angels doing a blasphemous knees-up. The show was naturally a momentary scandal and the score soon disappeared. In 1991 Gerard McBurney reconstructed from the surviving sketches a sequence of 21 of the orchestral numbers to make a hilarious sequence of gallops, saucy polkas, marches and schmoozy waltzes.

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

In the spring of 1913, Parisian businessman Gabriel Astruc opens a new theater on the Champs Elysées. The first performance is the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring', danced by the Ballet Russes. The rehearsal process is extremely fraught: the orchestra dislike Stravinsky's harsh, atonal music; the dancers dislike the 'ugly' choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky. The volatile, bisexual Nijinsky is in a strained relationship with the much older Sergei Diaghilev, the Ballet Russes' charismatic but manipulative impresario. Public expectation is extremely high after Nijinsky's success in 'L'apres-midi d'un faune'. Finally, 'The Rite of Spring' premieres to a gossip-loving, febrile, fashion-conscious Parisian audience sharply divided as to its merits.

The first revival of Wayne McGregor’s critically acclaimed ballet triptych to music by Max Richter, inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf.

The Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in The Royal Ballet’s repertory. It was the ballet with which the Company reopened the Royal Opera House in 1946 after World War II, its first production at its new home in Covent Garden. Margot Fonteyn danced the role of the beautiful Princess Aurora in the first performance, with Robert Helpmann as Prince Florimund. Sixty years later, in 2006, the original 1946 staging was revived by then Director of The Royal Ballet Monica Mason and Christopher Newton, returning Oliver Messel’s wonderful designs and glittering costumes to the stage.

Now celebrating its 50th year, George Balanchine’s sparkling ballet still shines with all the brilliance of the gemstones that inspired it.

A choreographer from New York upsets the balance of ballet-duo lovers (Johan Renvall, Ellen Troy) in competition.

Live from the Bolshoi Theatre, this 1978 remake of the two-act classical Christmas ballet blends Tchaikovsky's beloved melodies with superb dancing. Famed Bolshoi duo Yekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev star in this production of Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet, The Nutcracker. Maximova dances the role of Maria, the young girl whose mysterious uncle Drosselmeyer gives her a wooden nutcracker (Vasiliev) for Christmas. When he comes to life, she rescues him from marauding mice and is taken to the Kingdom of Sweets.

Mauro Bigonzetti's ballet based on Franz Kafka, performed by the National Theatre Ballet. Choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti, fascinated by the irresistible language of Prague native Franz Kafka and the enduring relevance of his novel "The Trial," was drawn into the dark world of Josef K and created a modern dance production depicting the world of the protagonist and his hopeless struggle with a cold and heartless modern society. Bigonzatti used music by a number of composers from different historical periods, from D. Buxtehude to H. Górecki, C. Monteverdi, and M. P. Mussorgsky. This selection is remarkably balanced and surprisingly contemporary.

When rebellious street dancer Andie West lands at the elite Maryland School of the Arts, she finds herself fighting to fit in while also trying to hold onto her old life. When she joins forces with the school's hottest dancer, Chase Collins, to form a crew of fellow outcasts to compete in Baltimore's underground dance battle The Streets.

On Christmas Eve, young Clara receives a nutcracker doll and drifts into a dream where toys come alive. Guided by the transformed nutcracker prince, she moves through a world of toy soldiers, rats, and magical creatures, facing her fears and desires. Snowflakes, flowers, and fantastical landscapes frame a vivid choreography set to Tchaikovsky’s iconic score.

A fledgling ballerina falls in love with a brilliant composer, but the jealous head of the ballet company plots to drive them apart.

It is a story in which the young heroine, dying from a broken heart, mysteriously hears the call of ghosts tempting her to join their round dance, and having become one of them she saves the lover who betrayed her.

An unusual explorer named Gum and his kindly niece adopt three orphans -- Pauline, Petrova and Posy -- and raise them as sisters in 1930s London. But the girls must fend for themselves when Gum doesn't return from one of his adventures. Together, they nurture their passions for acting, aviation and ballet in this charming TV adaptation of Noel Streatfield's novel.

The young talented girl Anya, dreaming of a ballet, enters the choreographic school. Due to poor health, learning for her becomes unbearably difficult, but dreams of a ballerina career make her stubbornly deal with adversity. Anna’s performance and determination does not go unnoticed by the celebrated choreographer Marius Petipa, who helps to stage Pavlova's examination performance. Such a gift becomes a starting point for Ani in the world of big ballet, her fast-paced career, position in high society and world fame make her forget about close friends and especially her faithful Michel Fokine, who invested a lot of energy in the formation of a ballerina.