Sleeping Beauty, like many other classic fairy tales, has a fuzzy history and a hundred different depictions. No one knows who wrote the first version, nor through how many hands and mouths it had passed before being published for the first time in 1634 by Giambattista Basile as one of a collection of short stories The Pentamerone. The story was adapted and republished several times after that by the likes of Charles Perrault, who wrote La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty), and the Brothers Grimm.

Sleeping Beauty is such a classic tale that it was adapted into a ballet that is still being performed today. First performed in 1890, the music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky who gets the most credit. Ivan Vsevolozhsky first conceived the original scenario based on the work of Charles Perrault and Marius Petipa did the choreography.

The Imperial Ice Stars have taken this ballet and adapted it to be performed on ice. This adds an impressive degree of complexity, grace and excitement as some of the best ice skaters in the world execute breathtakingly high-speed gymnastic manoeuvres for your entertainment.

Thursday at 20:00 on Stingray Classica (ch 332 on the 14th of November)