August 2024 was a special month because my friends at High Points Youth Ballet in Belfast held the city’s first ballet festival – the Belfast International Ballet Festival, in which their students, students from Scotland and Greece and several professional dancers from Ireland, the USA and Ukraine participated.
I also had the honour of participating and contributing to the festival because I was able to help bring two of my Ukrainian friends to come to Belfast and perform, and I gave a lecture on the history of Swan Lake. This was a very exciting and wonderful event, even more so because it was in my city and everyone who worked so hard to make it happen brought something very special to the city of Belfast.
A huge congratulations to everyone at High Points Youth Ballet for the success of this beautiful festival and all the dancers for your wonderful performances. And thank you for allowing me to be a part of it; it was such an honour and I look forward to the next event!
The Marius Petipa Society 
This is wonderful — thank you so much for sharing this. I do have a question. I’ve seen two variations for Odile — one I tend to see only in Russian productions and it uses sinewing, seductive music and starts with a series of turns; the other is more common in the west and is lyrical and somewhat reminiscent of Odette’s variation in act one. What is the deal with the former? It’s my favorite of the two but I’m wondering when/why it was put in the ballet, why it’s not performed much in the west, etc. I look forward to your next presentation — I can’t attend I person but I’m so very grateful that you posted this online for us to enjoy. 🙂
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