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# Review: The Sleeping Beauty @ Lichfield Garrick
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/review-the-sleeping-beauty-lichfield-garrick-2/
- Published: 2013-10-18T08:00:29.000Z
- Updated: 2013-10-18T08:00:29.000Z
- Author: Phil Preece
- Tags: Reviews, What's On, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 19:24

Great ballet isn’t about lavish costumes or spectacular sets but great dancing and that’s what this good-looking, talented young company has with knobs on.

This is an ambitious ballet for a small touring company to attempt, and I’ve seen many which have simply underestimated its demands. But you just can’t fake style, and that’s just where this company scores, fully understanding the delicacy and sophistication required to tell this profound tale, one chosen by the great masters Petipa and Tchaikovsky to entertain the imperial Russian audience. Here the most terrible disaster that can befall a community is threatened; the death of a beloved child. Yet through the benign magic of the Lilac Fairy, despite the terrible curse put on baby Princess Aurora by the wicked witch Carabosse she does not die, but merely sleeps until a prince worthy of her love is found to wake her from a magic slumber.

[![The Vienna Festival Ballet](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e3/90/e390c3da-0866-4d2a-8ffe-ca4999d7ce1c/content/images/lichfieldlive-co-uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/viennafestivalballet.jpg)](//lichfieldlive.co.uk/2013/10/12/vienna-festival-ballet-bring-sleeping-beauty-to-the-lichfield-garrick/viennafestivalballet/)

The Vienna Festival Ballet

\[three\_fourth\_last\]Here an excellent cast brought this lovely tale to life with poise, charm and delicacy, and every bit of this was due to their talent as dancers and the overall realisation of the work by artistic director Peter Mallek.

It is rare that every member of a cast is a good, even great dancer, but this is the case here. There’s only space to mention a very few of the outstanding performers, but this is a true ensemble tour de force.

Michaela Griffin is the most delightful Princess Aurora I’ve seen in a long while. Not just a wonderful dancer, she has charm, actually seeming happy, even thrilled to be the lucky girl at the centre of all this fuss, and glad to share it with a similarly delighted audience. In the final wedding celebration her prince, danced here by Miguel Piquer performed a thrilling series of variations of real technical difficulty with a casual nonchalance and modesty that is truly rare. I must also mention Emily-Joy Smith as the Lilac Fairy, a marvellous dancer and a truly delightful actress determined to share her sunny, benign attitude with everyone; it is a happy story, after all.

There are so many great moments I haven’t space to list them all, but I must just mention the final happy wedding celebration which unites wonderful classical set pieces such as the Bluebirds and the grand pas de deux with comedy, most memorably Red Riding Hood and her naughty Wolf and the cheekily courting cats not entirely out of place even at these elevated nuptials.

There may be more lavish productions of The Sleeping Beauty but this one scores if only for its vivacity, delicacy and charm. I’ve seen this ballet many times, but rarely enjoyed it as much. Try not to miss it.

The Sleeping Beauty continues at the Garrick until tomorrow October (19), with a Saturday matinee. For tickets phone the box Office on 0154 412121 or go online at [www.lichfieldgarrick.com](http://www.lichfieldgarrick.com/?ref=lichfieldlive.co.uk).