Dance review: Russian State Ballet and Orchestra of Siberia: La Fille Mal Gardee, Playhouse, Edinburgh

TAKING up residency at the Playhouse for the best part of a week, the Russian State Ballet of Siberia has arrived with a suitcase full of classics.

Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and for its opening night, La fille mal gardée – three classical productions, not one of which will rock the boat.

For those who like their ballet neither shaken nor stirred, just delivered exactly as the old masters intended, this company has it all. Pretty costumes, well-trained Russian dancers, a sensitive live orchestra, and soloists who pay no heed to Newton’s theory with their remarkable leaps.

Just don’t go looking for originality.

Created more than 200 years ago, La fille mal gardée is one of the oldest ballets still performed, and while this version by Alexander Gorsky lacks the clever wit of Sir Frederick Ashton’s, it still manages to raise a smile.

Alexander Kuimov shone as the pantomime dame-esque Widow Simone, despite making little of the famous clog dance, and Anna Aulle mixed levity and feistiness as her wilful daughter, Lise.

The decision to make Lise’s would-be husband, Alain, more childlike than slow-witted made the group bullying uncomfortable viewing though, and nothing serves to date a ballet like a bout of un-PC behaviour.

But with dancers like 20-year-old Dmitry Sobolevsky, whose straddle jumps caused a collective intake of breath from the crowd, the Russian State Ballet of Siberia will always find an audience for its traditional fare, and rightly so.

Rating: ***