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The company that David Murley saw on 8 April 2017 is the fourth oldest in the world. The Royal Swedish Ballet was founded in 1773 and its ballet masters include some of the greatest names in ballet:
- Filippo Taglioni, the creator of the very first version of La Sylphide and father of Maria Taglioni;
- Michel Fokine, creator of The Dying Swan, Chopiniana, The Firebird, Petrushka, Daphnis and Chloe and Le Spectre de la Rose;
- Anthony Tudor;
- Mary Skeaping; and
- Erik Bruhn.
Despite its importance in the history of dance, we do not see much of this company. It last appeared at Sadler's Wells between the 24 and 27 Sept 2014 and its previous appearance before then was in 1995.
When it came to London in 2014 it brought Mat's Ek's Romeo and Juliet based on a score by Tchaikovsky rather than Prokofiev. Sadly, I could not get down to London in time to see it for myself but the following YouTube video suggests that I missed something good.
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The ballet that David saw (extracts of which appear above) was The Dream of Swan Lake but the Royal Swedish Ballet seems to have a pretty good traditional Swan Lake in its repertoire.
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There are, of course, other fine companies in Sweden such as The Culberg Ballet which celebrates the 50th anniversary of its foundation this year and the Gothenburg Opera Dance Company about which I shall try to find out more.
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