My first visit to the Royal Albert Hall, and my first ballet – 2 first’s in one night is always good

I’ve seen the RAH from the outside a couple of times, and was also very impressed with the interior. Thankfully we had stall seats (4 rows from the stage area) and didn’t have to hike up some pretty steep ones in the cheaper areas.

The only knowledge I have of Swan Lake is knowing some of the score, and also the part in Billy Elliot – so I would say fairly minimal. From the start I was hooked though. The music was clear and filled the hall. When the dancers came on my eyes were everywhere.

This production was different to a “normal” production on a rectangular stage, this allowed for a lot more dancers and a much larger area to work with. The ballerina’s looked beautiful, some were scarily thin (as in you could see every bone in them!) but I guess you don’t want a chubby if you have to lift them!

This production also had 2 parts where they used the dry ice machines to create a “lake” by filling the whole stage area (a fairly huge area) and it looked FANTASTIC when the dancers came out onto it, a dreamy sequence (and I was thinking there would have been some great photo oppurtunities too).

I enjoyed the whole show and I think I will definitely go and see others now. If you’ve never been then I would say give it a go – and this version I think is a good one to see first.