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On Sunday evening I saw the Vienna Festival Ballet perform Swan Lake in Retford (a small town in Lincolnshire.) I had never heard of this company before, nor seen a ballet performed in Retford, so I was unsure of what to expect. From the program I learnt that the company's Artistic Director is an Austrian dancer Peter Mallek. The company was small, only 14 dancers on the stage, and they were very young, the average age being 20. They only danced the classics and the program claimed that their repertoire included Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia, The Nutcracker, Cinderella and La Sylphide. Unfortunatly the program failed to name any of the dancers.

The performance was very disapointing, I think Swan Lake was far too challenging for the resources available to the company. Many of the dancers were under rehearsed and mistakes were frequent. The general quality of dancing was low and reminded me of a local dance school rather than a professional company. Odette was very young. Although she was better than the other dancers the role was unfortunatly beyond her. During Act Three she appeared to be very tired and struggled through the steps, but to my surprise managed execute 16 effortless fouettes.

Although the quality of dancing was low at least the company allows less talented dancers to be involved in a professional company. Furthermore they perform to small towns, such as Retford and were warmly recieved by the audience.