The Royal's Sleeping Beauty on YouTube

YouTube rocks. Oh yes, it does.

These video clips are probably extremely illegal. But oh, how fun they are!

These are bootleg video clips of Alina Cojocaru in the Royal Ballet's new 2006 production of The Sleeping Beauty. Someone probably snuck a camera into the theatre to get these clips. I saw this production in June when it toured to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and it is reportedly going to be legitimately filmed and aired on the BBC in February 2007. It's a lovely new production (if not a bit bland in the design department), but Alina is sublime as Aurora. There's something about the way the Royal Ballet does The Sleeping Beauty that makes it so right. There's a strong dramatic sensibility, plus amazing technical facility in all the dancers. It flows like a beautiful fairytale story.

Here's the famous Rose Adagio:


Here's the variation from the Act 2 vision scene:


And the Grand Pas de Deux in Act 3, with Johan Kobborg.


The variations and coda:


EDIT (9/30): I've found out that these clips are from a bootleg video taken in Washington, DC on the opening night of Sleeping Beauty there. When I watched them initially I kept scratching my head, thinking that many moments looked very familiar - especially in the fish dives during the Grand Pas De Deux. The audience applauded wildly for this moment at the Washington DC performance I attended, and they do the same on this video clip... so now its confirmed that this was one and the same performance - June 22, 2006.